Okay so I was thinking for my story I could write it with two main characters one who is a bit a dick and the complete opposite of a normal charming and respectful hero and then have another who is completely honorable with a love interest who has a kid then reveal at the end that the main character who is completely dishonorable is actually the kid grown up.
I'm sure it could work. A really good twist is one where the story wouldn't make sense unless the twist happens. Just think about movies (ex. The Sixth Sense) you have seen or books (ex. Fight Club) that you have read with that idea in mind. Twists that really get people are the ones that the story couldnt live without, if that makes sense.
To paraphrase Cogito, it's not what you write but how you write it. I think Cogito did a scene about a guy twiddling his thumbs while walking down the street to illustrate that the most boring scene can be written interestingly. Charles Dickens could write the most cliche, boring, spammed, overused twist in the world and make it sound interesting. [So could I.]
It doesn't matter what it sounds like to us. It only matters what it sounds like to you. Every idea has been done. This one sounds a bit like a twist of Oedipus Rex. Don't ask questions about it, look for validation or for easy ways to bring it off. Go write it.
My wife said something about twists that I hold onto. You want to ride that fine line between obvious and not. You want to make the reader go, "DUH!" as soon as they read it, and yet be completely surprised that it happened.
A twist is a gimmick, and gimmicks don't impress me. However, a reversal which is integral to the story, and can be seen if you have the eyes for it throughout the story enriches the story. What's the difference? Logical inevitability. If you turn that final page, and say to yourself, "Of course! I should have realized that sooner," you have an integrated reversal, truly a payoff. If, on the other hand, you say, "What the hell? Where did that come from?" or, "Oh jeez, you gotta be kidding me," you have a typical twist. I recently read a mystery novel in which the author revealed the "culprit" no less than five times in the final twenty or thirty pages. It was absurd. It's better to have no twist at all than one weak twist.
