The Killer Twist

Wesley_S_Lewis

Boo Radley with a laptop
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I'll echo what others have said. I love a twist that makes perfect sense in the context of the information I already have--a twist for which the author has given me all the puzzle pieces but done so in such a subtle way that I'm not paying them any attention until they come together on the page.

There is an episode of the second season of PBS's On Story in which screenwriter/director Shane Black gives this explanation of what makes a good payoff/twist: "You hid your setup, so it seemed like it was there just for the moment. Then later you pay it off...The best response you can have to a payoff in a thriller is someone goes, 'Oh, right, I forgot! Of course! I should have thought of that!'"

I think some writers are so blinded by the success of novels and movies with great twists (e.g., Gone Girl, The Sixth Sense) that they don't stop to ask themselves what makes a twist great. They labor under the mistaken impression that shocking or unexpected equals great, and we end up reading a twist that nobody could have seen coming because the author withheld key information. Or we end up watching yet another movie with the inscrutable twist that the protagonist's best friend, partner, sibling, parent, or spouse was behind it all along.