I’ve a researched a bit about writing plot twists properly. The conclusion I came to was simply: Twists shouldn’t be too predictable but they shouldn’t be completely random either. There was also this method a writer used which was simply: 20% of the audience should figure out the twist LONG before it’s revealed and about 80% of the audience should figure it out JUST before it’s revealed. These are all great advice but I’m struggling to apply them properly. Thing is: I often have a hard time thinking from the audience’s POV. I’m not struggling with writing twists themselves but rather the foreshadowing/hints. I’m curious, how do you all incorporate your hints into the story? How many hints are there? How do you exactly employ hints, via dialogue? Via a character’s actions? Via small visual details? Do you employ hints in only one way or several? Simply put, I’m trying to ask the following: How do you all put hints/foreshadowing of a plot twist into the story?
I’m by no means an authority on the subject, but what I think works well is dropping hints that don’t seem like hints in different scenes/conversations. Stuff that seems like it’s just part of the current scene but when put together with the other hints reveal the plot twist. The art here is to make these hints seem mundane in every way, but a discerning reader will figure it out quickly.
So you’re essentially saying that I should blend the hints into scenes so that they don’t get noticed? That’s a cool technique, I will definitely try that! This also reminded of the twist from Oldboy, I loved the hints upon rewatching! They led the audience into the wrong path, made them think the wrong outcome. I absolutely loved the very first hint in the movie, the way it tricks you into thinking something else and you just completely forget about it after a couple of minutes. Brilliant movie, loved it.
My personal favorite is to have a down and out cynic character just be constantly spouting conspiracy theories, eventually, some conspiracy theory is going to be right.
A campaign I ran had a drunken indebted and disgraced count who during a call to arms meeting cause a scene with a “we’re all gonna die” speech, that the empire was going to come into the operation and kill both the invasion and their forces to further secure the duchies they were defending.