Have you ever picked up a novel that everyone has recommended to you? It's gotten rave reviews and you really do have very high expectations from it. Most of the books like this that you pick up will just fall flat but, every now and again, you will pick up that one book that leaves you breathless. A book with killer plot twists, suspense building page after page until BOOM! Something gets revealed, and then something else and it continues, the layers of the story both building up yet unraveling at the same time. Building and building until you can’t take it anymore.

The thing is, some of these books will have things happening that are implausible but the way they are written will have you clutching onto them, one after another. They feel right, natural, not forced in any way.

How are you going to do that when you write your fiction story? How are you going to build in your plot twists and lead your story in the direction you want, without it seeming too obvious – isn’t it awful when someone says, “I could see where that story was going right from the start”. Even if your story does seem obvious from the start, you need to give it that little extra, the surprise that will have readers gasping, will have them saying, “I didn’t see that coming!”

There are loads of ways that you can do this but I’m going to tell you about four of them:

Cut Out The Obvious

When your story is reaching its climax, go through every one of the situations you can think of that will help your protagonist to succeed.

Then throw them all way.

Think of some more.

Throw them away.

You want an ending that no reader will see coming, an ending that has people saying, “WHY didn’t I see that coming? It’s so obvious!” The more impossible it looks for the protagonist to succeed, the more inevitable the solution has to be and the more believable. Your readers should never anticipate what is going to happen; they should never guess; they should simply smile and nod their heads.

When you are writing, there are a couple of things to ask yourself:

What needs to be changed so each twist lives in a world that is believable and credible?

How can I get rid of the gimmicks and depend more on the narrative strength as a way of building the twist?

Are my readers going to have to put up with whatever story I tell, anticipating a twist at the end or will the twist just make the story that much more enjoyable? How can I make the story leading up to it better?

How do I make more efficient use of all the clues that make up the story logic to come up with a twist that results in more story continuity?

Redirect Reader Suspicion

When you are working on your story, keep on asking yourself what your readers expect or want at any given point in the story. Then twist it and keep twisting it in directions that your readers will love.

To stop them from noticing all the clues, put them deep in the action or emotion of a different section of the story.  During an action scene, for example, while your readers are focused on what’s going on, drop in a comment that will eventually lead to the twist. Use dead ends, red herrings and more to throw your readers off the scent.

When writing, ask these questions:

How can I bury my clues efficiently? My readers need these clues to make the ending make sense but where do I bring them in without being too obvious?

There are loads of expectations for this genre so how do I play them so my readers look at the wrong person as the baddie?