Twist Endings

That is where I am generally aiming when I write fiction. I cannot imagine why the editor would consider this a lazy approach...would not the opposite be true?

Twists lazy? Good lord, doesn't that editor understand how difficult it is to pull together a sleight of hand ending that had clues buried in the story?

What a concept.

I love a twist ending if it's done well.

I remember that I LOVED the ending of Scott Turow's "Presumed Innocent" when I read it forever ago.

I love a well-set up twist ending, too. It makes me respect the work, and the author's mind, all the more.

The Last Templar is in the pile by my bed. I'll have to dig it out.

Twists

Yes, twist ending are lazy. That's why good ones are so hard to imagine, and so hard to execute well once you do have one in mind.

Now, surprise endings really are lazy, and most editors and readers hate them. Makes me wonder whether the editor even know the difference. Or he's simply a "maroon," as Bugs would say, with very little knowledge of mystery fiction. I'm tempted to say no knowledge at all.

Either way, this is not a publication I'd submit anything to, or want to read.

I agree. There's a big difference in a well planned twist that makes you slap your forehead and say "Now I get it. Of course. Why didn't I see that." and the surprise ending that makes you say "WTF?". One is a great payoff. The other is insulting and lazy, like the author couldn't be bothered to solve his own puzzle. I assume the editor meant he hates surprise endings.

I like an ending to not be predictable. If a twist makes sense I like it. If it is just a convenient way to try to fool the reader they can keep it.

I think twist endings are great! I love reading them, but I've never tried to write one. Getting that sort of thing to work is hard work, especially trying to phrase the clues so that when the reader goes back through the text (as readers are wont to do) it all makes sense. I still remember what a great sense of pleasure Mary Stewart's "The Ivy Tree" gave me, and I first read it back in the 'Sixties.

If the twist is feasible and relevant, then by all means it's good to have one. However, more often than not the twist is just thrown in for the sake of it, or so it would appear, and that I find to be quite aggravating as a reader / viewer.

My first novel has a twist ending. It is set up from the very first chapter of the book and I drop little clues all the way through - but inconspicuoslty scattered into the backgroud while leading the reader down a completely different path.
It was really, really fun to write! (I don';t know if it is a twist as much as a surprise. I do know that readers loved it.)

Kate, I started The Last Templar but couldn't get into it. You mean I should give it a second go?

I've never read a good twist ending. Books always leave me cold that way. However, in film:

-- The Usual Suspects
-- No Way Out
-- The Sixth Sense
-- The Cannonball Run (who KNEW Roger Moore would get ejected out of his own seat?) ;-)

I never saw the twist in No Way Out, but I knew that Bruce Willis was dead from the beginning in The Sixth Sense.

I love twist endings that are totally unpredicted! Not like on my soap opera--I can always see those coming!

I love a well executed twist ending. Still can't write one.

As for film The Usual Suspects got me, but I saw Sixth Sense coming from a mile away.

ending

I admit, I didn't see the ending coming in Sixth Sense, either. Glad I didn't, too.

Jamesaritchie said:

I admit, I didn't see the ending coming in Sixth Sense, either. Glad I didn't, too.

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I didn't either the first time I saw it, but he couldn't fool me the second time.

Sixth Sense got me. I'm usually good at spotting a twist, but that one really blindsided me, which of course made the movie twice as much fun.

SoccerMom said:

I agree. There's a big difference in a well planned twist that makes you slap your forehead and say "Now I get it. Of course. Why didn't I see that." and the surprise ending that makes you say "WTF?". One is a great payoff. The other is insulting and lazy, like the author couldn't be bothered to solve his own puzzle. I assume the editor meant he hates surprise endings.

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Oooh, nice explanation. I've read mystery novels with what you call a surprise ending, and it irritates me because I've spent the whole book trying to figure out a mystery that couldn't possibly be figured.

Not to blaspheme against the sublime Agatha, but don't you think And Then There Were None was a surprise, not a twist? How could you have figured that one out, based on her story, until the end?

My little sister is a plot analyst extraordinaire and always the one who knows the twist ending is coming. She knew Bruce was dead right from the start of The Sixth Sense. I'd love to be that great at putting together embedded clues! I do occasionally get things just because I can't figure out why a plot element would be in the movie unless something would later be done with it. I kind of like the shock, though, so maybe ignorance isn't such a bad thing. It must be great for sales, too, at least in cinema, when moviegoers pay for a second watch, to see how they missed the clues the first time.

One of my favorite kind of plot twists is the type that makes you doubt the love interest of the protagonist, like Hitchcock's Charade or To Catch a Thief. Wasn't there a delicious moment in Charade when you wondered if Cary Grant really was secretly out to get Audrey Hepburn? Come on, even for a half a second?

Kate Thornton said:

I didn't see either of them coming. I loved The Usual Suspects! In the 6th Sense, on my first viewing I didn't really get the opening scenes, which are critical to understanding the end.

I like an ending that makes me say, "Wow - it's not what I thought it would be. Wow, that's great!"

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I was married at the time of watching Sixth Sense and the wife hadn't caught on. It took a lot of willpower to not open my mouth and blurt it out.

Not Sure if It qualifies as a twist ending, but definately one that made me slap my forehead, SMACK! OF COURSE!! was Len Deighton's novel Berlin Game. It caught me flat footed. I'm usually really good at solving mysteries/thrillers before I get to the end and he really surprised me. Loved it.

I am easily surprised by twist endings and I love them. Sixth Sense got me. I yawned my way through the first half of that Templar book. Maybe I'll pick it up again.

Odd Thomas got me, too.

I tend to be rather gullible....

I love me a good twist, which is one of the reasons why my WIP has one. (The other reason being that's the way the story sort of unfolded for me.)

Soccer Mom said:

I agree. There's a big difference in a well planned twist that makes you slap your forehead and say "Now I get it. Of course. Why didn't I see that." and the surprise ending that makes you say "WTF?". One is a great payoff. The other is insulting and lazy, like the author couldn't be bothered to solve his own puzzle. I assume the editor meant he hates surprise endings.

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I think this is the perfect distinction. I hope my WIP will give readers that good feeling because I've tried to include lots of clues among the red herrings, but it does make me nervous. I guess I'll find out when my betas get it. If it flops, I believe the story can be salvaged because it doesn't depend on the twist.

KCathy said:

Not to blaspheme against the sublime Agatha, but don't you think And Then There Were None was a surprise, not a twist? How could you have figured that one out, based on her story, until the end?

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I think that's true of many of her stories. Poirot, Marple, whoever are frequently privy to information that the reader isn't. I still love Agatha Christie though.

Oh, and The Usual Suspects was great, totally didn't see that coming.

KCathy said:

Not to blaspheme against the sublime Agatha, but don't you think And Then There Were None was a surprise, not a twist? How could you have figured that one out, based on her story, until the end?

?

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It's been a long time since I read the book. I know I loved it, and don't recall being surprised by the ending. I just saw the movie version, and the ending there was no surprise at all.