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?
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.