Twists, turns and suspense are important tools that contribute to the art of storytelling, although their importance can vary depending on the specific genre or narrative style. Writers who choose to uphold the sacred connection between the printed word and the mind of a reader know how powerful a reader's curiosity can be.
Twists and Turns
Here are a few reasons why twists and turns matter:
1. Engagement: Twists and turns maintain a reader's, viewer's, or listener's interest. When a story is predictable, it can become dull. Unpredictability keeps the audience guessing and engaged.
2. Suspense: Twists often increase suspense, a crucial component in genres like mystery, thriller, and horror. Suspense keeps the audience on edge, eager to know what happens next.
3. Surprise: A well-executed twist can surprise the audience, leading to a more memorable experience. It can create a powerful emotional reaction that leaves a lasting impression.
4. Narrative Depth: Twists can add depth to the story, revealing layers of complexity in the plot or characters that were not initially apparent. This can make the story more satisfying and rewarding.
5. Re-readability/Re-watchability: When a story has a good twist, it often encourages the audience to re-experience the story to pick up on clues or foreshadowing they may have missed the first time.
Of course, not every story requires twists and turns. Some narratives are powerful in their simplicity or linearity. Twists and turns should be used judiciously; if they are too frequent or not well-constructed, they can feel gimmicky or disorienting.
Effective twists and turns, however, should generally be both surprising and inevitable. They should come as a shock to the audience, but in hindsight, the audience should be able to see how the twist or turn makes sense based on the clues or character development provided earlier in the story.
Many famous authors have employed twists and turns effectively in their novels. Here are a few:
1. Agatha Christie: Known as the "Queen of Mystery," Christie's novels are full of unexpected twists. Her novel And Then There Were None is a prime example, featuring a group of people on an isolated island who are killed off one by one, with the murderer's identity remaining a mystery until the end.
2. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Russian author Dostoevsky used psychological twists in his novels. Crime and Punishment is a notable example, where the protagonist's mental state provides several psychological twists and turns.
3. Gillian Flynn: Flynn's novel Gone Girl is a recent example of a book with a major twist. The story is a psychological thriller involving a husband and wife, and the narrative shifts dramatically when the wife's diary reveals unexpected information.
4. George R.R. Martin: His series A Song of Ice and Fire, adapted into the Game of Thrones TV series, is filled with twists and turns that subvert traditional fantasy tropes and keep readers constantly on their toes.
5. J.K. Rowling: The "Harry Potter" series, while primarily a coming-of-age story, features significant twists, especially regarding the identities and histories of certain characters.
6. Dan Brown: His The Da Vinci Code and other Robert Langdon books are known for their plot twists involving historical and symbolic mysteries.
7. Philip K. Dick: Many of Dick's science fiction stories, like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (basis for the movie, Blade Runner), are renowned for their unexpected twists, often related to identity and reality.
8. O. Henry: Although not a novelist, O. Henry is a renowned short story writer known for his surprise endings. His stories, like The Gift of the Magi, often conclude with a twist that sheds new light on the preceding events.
Suspense
Authors can also effectively use suspense to engage the reader's interest and create tension throughout their novels. Suspense is often used in conjunction with other narrative techniques such as foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and pacing.
Here are a few famous writers who used suspense as a technique in their books:
1. Stephen King - Misery: King's mastery of suspense is evident in this novel where a famous author is held captive by his "number one fan" after a car accident. The reader's anxiety mounts as the captor's mental instability and violence escalate.
2. Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs: This thriller centers on a young FBI trainee who must consult with the incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, to catch another serial killer. The suspense lies in the dangerous relationship between the trainee and Lecter, and the race against time to save the next victim.
3. Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: A journalist and a hacker investigate the disappearance of a wealthy heir. Larsson builds suspense by gradually revealing the dark secrets of the wealthy family and the danger the protagonists are in.
4. John le Carré - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: In this spy novel, a semi-retired intelligence officer is tasked with uncovering a Soviet mole in the British intelligence community. The suspense derives from the methodical unveiling of the mole's identity.
5. Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park: A theme park with genetically-engineered dinosaurs experiences a major security breakdown. Crichton steadily builds suspense as the park's safety measures fail, and the characters must survive in an environment where dinosaurs roam free.
6. Mary Shelley - Frankenstein: The suspense in this classic novel comes from the looming dread of what the creature, abandoned by its creator, will do next, and the moral and existential questions that this raises.
Whether you are working on a story that employs twists, turns and/or suspense, keeping the reader's interest from sentence to sentence, from page to page, from chapter to chapter contributes to your ability to tell your complete story. Readers, in today's fragmented world, are easily distracted, so once you have someone's attention, I highly recommend you not let it get away.
Thank you for taking the time to read my columns. I hope you will consider sharing this post and helping me to build a vibrant community interested in writing, reading and movies.
I love that your take on storytelling enhances OUR experiences. I want to go back and reread some of these books now. I'll bet you'd be an incredible creative writing mentor and teacher.