The first example that comes to mind for me of a good plot twist would be Watchmen (the comic, not the movie). The way everything just comes together is completely and utterly devastating and narrative-wise absolutely brilliant. In the movie they already blow half of the surprise out of the water in the very first scene (after the opening credits), but in the comic you're constantly puzzling and figuring things out and it's amazing to see how it all ends. Misdirection is definitely key, combined with solid story telling and good use of narrative.
Yes, Agatha Christie was the first author I thought of when I read the OP. She did this in every novel she wrote. Of course she did the usual 'mystery' trick of having the reader suspect everybody at some stage, but even though I read every one of her books when I was young (mostly for the sense of time and place and local colour, not the mystery itself) I was NEVER able to guess how the murderer did it. I sometimes guessed who the murderer was on instinct, but not often. I never figured out the twist. I don't know if that's because she was very good at what she did, or I was particularly obtuse. She's a good author to study regarding twists.
Thank you for liking my original post, I thought I'd throw that in there. Agatha Christie is certainly a one off. I can't think of another accomplished author in her genre. Some people may think 'Here we go again, another murder mystery. Yawn'. Her novels though, really interest me to quite a large degree. I think the decades in which they are set, play a huge role in achieving their objective. It's nice to converse with an 'Agatha Christie fan', that appreciates her gift of story structure. I wish I could recreate her style and physique.
I think there are two basic kinds of twists. One that may annoy readers, and one that inevitably works if it's plausible. The one that can be annoying is if important information is withheld from the reader, and only revealed at the end. This works if your POV character is also unaware of the information, but can be totally off-putting if the POV character has known the information all along, but has kept it from the reader. This can work if you create an unreliable narrator, but that's tricky to pull off. The one that does inevitably work (if it's plausible) is when events that have been foreshadowed do come to pass, but in a very different way from what the reader has been led to expect. Nothing is being withheld from the reader because the events haven't happened yet. Here's an example of this kind of twist. A man is mortally scared of lightning. He makes sure his house is properly grounded, hides under his wooden bed during storms, knows all the precautions, etc. However, he remains convinced that lighting is going to kill him some day, and nothing will deter him from this conviction. One day a lightning storm comes up while he's visiting a house he thinks is not grounded properly. He knows if he can make it safely to his car, which is parked across the street, the rubber tires will protect him, so he leaves the house in a panic, throws a newspaper over his head to shield him from the rain, makes a terrified dash for the car as thunder rolls and lighting flashes around him ...and gets knocked down and killed by a passing bus. Not a particularly fantastic story, but that kind of a twist doesn't annoy people. It makes them think. The lightning did kill him, after all. Irony.
That's a good example of a sort of twist, or turn of events that'll surprise the reader. As a reader you may think, there'll be something, he hasn't thought of that'll kill him. The lightning will find some way to strike him, yet you didn't see that coming. I'm torn whether an 'unreliable narrator' is a help or hindrance, to a big revealing plot twist. Some make you feel 'You got me, I should have pieced the evidence together better'. Others make you want to metaphorically strangle the writer, for playing around with your psychology.
I think the best way to avoid a plot twist being too shocking for it to feel fair is to have some lead-up: make it that it's an unexpected use of pre-existing set-up.
I find the worst ones are the "it was all a dream" or some such. I hate those. Unless the dream elememt uses that rule.
I think there is a thin line between, good shocks and bad shocks. The skill is to have your twist endings on the good side of shocking.
I'm not saying I resent you for it. You don't need to make this hostile. I was just asking because it was ambiguous. It was intended to be just a friendly question. I'm trying to have a productive discussion, that requires clarity between us.
You didn't include questions marks in your comment. So you made it read, as a statement rather than a question.
I stated that I was confused. I thought it was obvious I therefore required an answer. Perhaps I should have made the second part a question. Either way, there was still no need for hostility when I was just trying to clarify. Could you explain what you meant?
Your reaction to my comments, could be perceived as hostile. Don't bandy around words, where they're not justified. If you want someone to be clear, you should try being clear yourself. I think my comments are very self explanatory, there are good shock twists to story and bad shock twists to a story. It's up to the author to distinguish between, which shock twists they use in their books. It's that simple.
But what is the relationship to what I was saying? It's clear what the words mean, it's not clear why you responded to my suggestion with them. It's equivalent, it seems to me, to if you say how do you do good pasta? And someone says you normally aim for all dente texture. Then you say there's good pasta and bad pasta. What's that supposed to mean? I'm trying to be helpful but I can't tell what you're feedback is.
I'll take a couple of words from your orginal post and query you about something that's ambiguous. What exactly does "too shocking" mean then?
Could you just answer my question? Does this have to be a fight? I'm only trying to understand your thoughts on my answer to your question. Is it really too hard to just tell me clearly what you think?
"Too shocking" was in reference to YOUR premise. The idea that you didn't want to do a twist ending that felt random/lazy. I was givimg my opinion on how to avoid that. I don't see why you're making this a problem. All I want to know is what you were trying to say earlier.
Go back a few posts and you'll find, I've already explained to you my position and if you are confused or still don't get it, then I really don't know what else to tell you.
Read some of Jeffrey Deaver's short stories. He likes to do a twist, or even a twist within the twist (once you think the twist has struck, there's another one that turns it on its head). He does them in a way that they make sense once revealed.
Thank you for the recommendation. I've just looked up Jeffrey Deaver and he has over 30 books. I'll have plenty to choose from.
Yeah. A movie had been made of at least one. Get his short story collection Twisted. I believe that's the collection I am thinking of.
