Engaging Readers by Revealing the Twist

Today, I’m talking about committing a writer taboo. As storytellers, we feel the need to closely guard our secrets of the plot, to not make the answers obvious, for the sake of reader enjoyment. But, for this week’s topic, I’m going to tell you how to engage your readers by telling what your big shocking revelation is and when to do it.

Yes, it sounds scary and goes against what we as writers feel is the “right” way of going about things but this allows for a unique experience as the reader. When thinking of this topic, my first thought drifted to the Book Thief, by Marcus Zuzak. In this book, death narrates the story of a girl, Liesel, during World War II in Nazi. Germany. From this information alone, you know this is likely not a happy story. There is a sense of dread immediately starting the story. And in this book Death reveals certain events that are going to happen, long before the story gets to it.

And, instead of this killing suspense, it raised it. You knew what was going to happen but you didn’t know when or how. You’re constantly looking for signs and wondering, is this where it happens? And before you know it, you’ve read the entire book in a single day, crying your eyes out because it’s the Book Thief.

Think of Tangled. Flynn, or Eugene, starts the movie off by saying, “this is the story of how I died.” without any other information to go off of, you know, bad things are going to happen to him. It prompts you to keep watching and look for clues. Like you’re a detective looking at the evidence and trying to figure out the story of the crime.

Spoilers are not always a bad thing. Should you spoil everything? Absolutely not. The idea here is to feed the reader just enough breadcrumbs so that they are hooked and have to know what happens.

But sometimes, the twist isn’t outright stated. Sometimes, it’s heavily implied to where your reader should know what’s going to happen, even without you stating it directly. This is the case in a project Kamryn and myself are currently working on. From the beginning, given our character's background and current problem, we expect the reader to know that what our character is most afraid of, is definitely going to happen.

We use that to drive suspense. Because the reader may know, but our character doesn’t. Meaning every step our character gets unknowingly closer to their inevitable downfall, the reader knows it’s about to get ugly.

Something I’m currently reading is They Both Die at the End, by Adam Silvera which seems right up this week’s alley. But, it’s also one of the reasons I decided to pick up the book. When I end up sobbing over it, I’ll be sure to include it in a monthly wrap-up post, so stick around for that if you enjoy hearing about my emotional turmoil that these lovely books put me through.

The idea with all of this is that the reader gets a snippet of information, but the story itself is what makes them care. You build and build and build up this story and the characters so that by the time the reader gets to the information you’ve revealed to them, it hits hard. This should feel like a gut-punch to the reader. The moment they’ve been waiting for, the tear-jerking, emotions-are-painful moment. This is usually the “All is Lost” point (if you follow the Save the Cat method).

This storytelling method works well if your ending is more bittersweet and somber. If not everybody in your story gets the happy ending or ends up with the romantic partner. But it can definitely work in a story with a happy ending as well, especially if the big twist reveals a deeper meaning to the story. A life lesson the character needed to learn to take the correct path or begin their new journey.

To wrap it up, spoilers can be a great tool for writers. It builds engagement and suspense and allows the reader to dig through your story while they go on the emotional journey with the characters and ultimately lead them to the moment they’ve been waiting for (sometimes dreading).

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What stories do you know that use this method? Did the Book Thief and They Both Die at the End send you spiraling into a book-depression? Let’s cry about it in the comments together! See you next time. Write-on!