Did you plan it, or did it sneak up on you in the middle of writing?
I’m curious—what’s one turning point in your story that caught you off guard (in a good way or bad)? Or maybe it was something you always knew had to happen, but it still hit hard once you wrote it.
Plotters, pantsers, and discovery writers… love to hear your experiences.
I'll never forget that in one of my novels, The Black Ruby, a beloved character suddenly died (I won't share how). I remember my Grandma coming back and saying, "Why did you have to kill them?" My reply, "I had nothing to do with it. I was as surprised as you!" And I meant that. I was actually sad about it. But my fingers did it. My fingers just fly when I write, I'm barely thinking, if at all. I definitely feel it comes from beyond me.
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I write on the seat of my pants too Kat Spencer
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I usually plan plot twists, but sometimes they sneak up on me when I'm writing or rewriting a script, Kat Spencer. A turning point in my script that caught me off guard was when the main villain showed up to a house with a huge army of monsters and people who work with the monsters. I planned the scene, but the scale and impact of the scene caught me off guard when I wrote the scene, and I added things in the scene that I didn't plan.
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Mark Deuce Maurice Vaughan It's so fun!
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Hi Kat,
I never plan. I visualize the story in my head and throw caution to the wind. I let the characters tell the story and I just roll with it. It generally works out pretty well. In my newest book the biggest surprise was the killer turning out to be a woman!
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Mine usually take me by surprise lol I almost never intentionally do a plot twist. I think the first one I did was in my novel Petal’s first iteration back in like 2013 or sometime, and it was when Wataru revealed that he was the Earth’s only energy human and so Jiro (the protagonist) actually shouldn’t exist because a planet having two energy humans would destroy it, which prompted me to go “that’s a good question, Jiro, why DO you exist?” and that’s when the rabbit hole started…
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I love it so much Kat Spencer
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Love it Christina Hammer and Banafsheh Esmailzadeh!
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Mark Deuce It is pretty remarkable to not only have the ability to get lost (or found) in someone else's writing, but also your own.
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My script changed when I realised by antagonist was a better character than my protagonist. I originally enjoyed writing my protagonist with her triumphant ending but when I started working the villain more - then the tables turned. I was a little shocked how much I enjoyed creating the villain. Feel like a traitor to my 'Disney/Happy Ending' brain....
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hahahaha love that Lauren Hackney!
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I got a smile from that as well, Lauren. Good luck with the project.
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Kat Spencer, I absolutely relate to that feeling of being surprised by your own story. The book I’m currently working on is the first in a planned trilogy, and I spent an entire year worldbuilding and outlining before I wrote a single page. During that time, I also roughly mapped out books 2 and 3 to make sure the full arc felt cohesive.
One of the biggest discoveries that completely snuck up on me was realizing that my original antagonist, the one I designed the whole first book around, is not the true antagonist of the series. He’s still very much a force of evil and a personal threat to my protagonist, but as I dug deeper, I realized the story needed a larger, more insidious evil working in the shadows. It shifted the emotional weight of the final book and gave the entire ensemble a higher-stakes mission beyond what I initially imagined. That realization changed everything.
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Well done, Ashley. And how cool you got the follow-on books mapped out as well. Your words make me want to pick back up a trilogy I haven't worked on in a while. Thanks for that nudge.
In my book THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE I present the classic observation that there are Three Levels to the Dark Side. 1 - A character's own foibles, phobias, faults (like Indy's fear of snakes in RAIDERS, overcome later on to help save the day). 2 - The Dark Forces of nature (like in TWISTER, ARMAGEDDON, or DON'T LOOK UP) . 3 - The Dark Ones, the big baddies or systems on high levels and with great strength (like the President and the tech bro in DON'T LOOK UP).
So we want to have at least two in a story: 1 - Personal, 2 - Impersonal, 3 - Supra-personal.
Best to you all in crafting wonderful, engaging, fulfilling stories!
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The defining moment for my protagonist was when he chose to not do a good deed out of selfishness and greed. This later causes him great regret throughout the rest of the story.
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Wow Ashley Renee Smith I can't wait to read these :)
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Yep, when you get out of the way, the fun starts! That's why I am selective, who I hang out with.