Whisper House Press

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How do we write stories (whether we’re writing short or long fiction) with compelling twists that work? I’m nearly done with reviewing short story submissions for Whisper House Press’s forthcoming Doom Scroll (debuts 10/24/2026 at Utah Horror Day in person and worldwide online and in shops), and I found myself asking an author for revisions to clarify their intent with regard to a story twist. Then I thought: “Hey, this is advice I would have loved to have gotten a decade ago.”

So here’s my advice for writing with a twist (and what twists can teach us about writing anything in fiction).

Note: None of what I offer here should be interpreted as saying the author to whom I directed the aforementioned feedback doesn’t already know this stuff—I’m speaking of my former self when I speak about the unknowing writer.

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What constitutes a twist in a story?

What is a twist, anyhow, and what is it that makes a twist work? Here’s a quick list specifying what I have in mind:

• When it arrives, the twist cannot come completely out of left field; it must not be illogical and confusing. It’s gotta make sense.
  • Even (and perhaps especially) in a story that intentionally misdirects audiences, the main oomph must not be downright confusing (given all available information).
• The twist must be surprising—as in “Wow! I didn’t see that coming!”
• The twist has to seem inevitable (per Shawn Coyne of The Story Grid renown—I think I heard this line in one of his podcasts some years back, and it’s always stuck with me).

To summarize the what of a twist: A twist is a story turn (as in a “turn of events” or a shift in story direction) that makes perfect sense but feels inevitable and manages at the same time to be surprising.

And you might think, “Yeah, but how do I do all that at the same time? If a thing makes perfect sense, how can it be surprising?” And you’re not wrong to ask the question. You’re in good company.

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K. But how tho?

Writing a good twist is really tough… until you understand how they work. I’ve read hundreds of (over a thousand, I think) short stories in the last two years. In that time alone, I’ve come across many stories with ineffective twists and a lesser number offering effective twists. Despite a lifetime of reading and 12ish years of full-time university study along with a decade+ since leaving academia of writing fiction intentionally, it’s taken a mere two years of editorial experience to understand what makes a twist a good one and what ingredients make for a bad one.

In recent years, I’ve also come to understand quite a lot about how my brain works: I think of the world mechanistically, systematically, and with a heavy leaning-into with regard to patterns—patterns of speech, of behavior, and of stories. And I’ve noticed some patterns about the twists that work versus those that do not work.

Here are a few rules (that should, I’m sure, be broken at times but that hold most of the time) for writing with a twist:

1. We should see tension hinting at the twist on page one. This is a two-part demand: the tension and the twist are both key.
   • You can’t, of course, give away the ball game (we need the twist to surprise us, right?), and so your hint can’t be too on-the-nose. But once the reader gets to the actual turn, they should be able to say, in retrospect: “She told me on page one!” (IMO, it’s easier to add this after you are done drafting than to build it into the first draft, but your experience may differ from mine, as always.)
2. Thank about the twist as the “Of course!” product of evidence-bits.
   • Look through your story for each specific action / piece of evidence for the twist. Do these items add up to “Of course!”?
   • Mechanically (in whose terms my brain operates pretty much all the time), the evidence likely needs to be muted at first, and then it needs to mount through the story until we get hit with the no-doubter, wherever it falls.
3. The evidence should escalate or misdirect with intention through the story’s telling.
   • This is where the good stuff really gets great. This goal is best accomplished with careful analysis and plotting, whether that work be done before, during, or after completing your first draft.
     • Remember: It works how it works, and what works for one story won’t work for another.
   • When you’re done drafting, go back through your work and find the pattern of escalation / evidence-buildup through the story.
   • Without a strict followup and revision, chances are things won’t be clear enough for your twist to work upon first drafting alone.
4. Time the twist with care.
   • If your twist comes too early (for your story) or too late (for your story), it won’t hit as hard as you’re hoping. What defines “too early” and “too late”? It isn’t something I can tell you. What works for one story won’t work for another, as always. My best effort: If the twist must be played out for full effect, it should come rather earlier, relative to your story arc—and if the twist is the point, it must come relatively later.

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What twists can teach us about writing any fiction

You don’t need to be writing a whodunit mystery to benefit from the advice I’ve just given. It works for every aspect of any story.

For instance: If you want to show that your protagonist Avril is a scrupulous moralist, you have to give evidence, scattered intentionally throughout your story, of this fact. You have to show them acting in accord with their moral commitments. Otherwise, when they do something that appears to be against their self-interest but follows a moral code closely, it will appear to be (and in truth it will be) unmotivated. And that’s a surefire way to lose a reader.

Bonus note here: Tabletop role-playing gamers here have a built-in advantage, as making a character sheet for each character who says or does anything of note in the story is a good way to have their background in mind as you write through their actions and reactions through your developing story.

Another example: If we’re to believe that the antagonist, despite being the antagonist to our protagonist’s interests, is a decent person with their own wishes and wants, we need to show the antagonist (or have them act in a way that will indicate such) demonstrating these character elements.

Following this advice will make your characters (all of them—not just your MC) more so-called “realistic” and “believable”. They’ll read as whole people and not just cardboard cutouts of protagonists and antagonists. As with story twists, we want our characters’ actions to be surprising enough to be interesting but

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Some of my favorite stories with excellent twists include Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (a film, 2019) and Catriona Ward’s The Last House on Needless Street (a novel, 2021).

What recs of stories with superb twists do you have for me/us?

Comment here or email me at editor (at) whisperhousepress (dot) com; I’ll add our favorites to this list and credit you for your contribution to the cause of great reading.

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