What defines a top tier plot twist and how do you make one?Talking specifically about genre fiction.
>>23817217The most important thing is that it makes sense in retrospective.
Twists are so done to death that there is nothing that can catch the average reader off guard anymore. I wouldn't use a twist unless it helps build the deeper meaning of what you are trying to convey to the reader. Stuff that used to be a twist can't even be described as a twist anymore because hacky writers have made it their number one go to for low brow political gotchas.
>>23817217On a related note, is there any "plot twists" in serious literature, i.e. the classics?
>>23817217Why would you want to twist the plot?
>>23817283Well, it depends on what you mean by twist. I wasn't expecting Smerdyakov doing a certain thing by the end of the Brothers Karamazov when I first read it, for example, but I'm not sure that would constitute a plot twist nowadays with all the "OMG HECKIN TWISTERINOS FOR DAYS!!!" reddit tier mentality nowadays.
>>23817217They're great when they make you reevaluate everything on a reread. A seemingly innocuous statement is suddenly transformed into something completely different if you know the twist. It also has to be well-foreshadowed.I don't read much genre fiction, so I'm going to list examples from other mediums. NieR Gestalt makes you reevaluate the entire journey and how you view everyone from your allies to enemies. Zero Escape: 999 cleverly makes use of the video game medium itself. Black Souls 1+2 manages to pull off a wild plot twist twice, both plot twists making perfect sense in retrospect with copious foreshadowing. Old Boy is a famous example. For the life of me I cannot remember what the plot twist in Gone Girl was, but I remember my high school self being very impressed, I think it's based on a book too. The Twilight Zone and early Black Mirror consistently pull off great endings, some of them plot twists, some of them not.>>23817283Lolita. Gotta reread it, I probably missed a lot of subtle clues pointing to it.Savage Detectives has a plot twist in part 3, which is doubly effective since it chronologically happens near the beginning of the story - 1976. It completely reshapes how you view part 2 (which takes place between 1976-1996).Some classics also attempt to do "hidden" plot twists, as in you may read the entire thing and not realise there was a twist at all. Confidence-Man by Melville and The Good Soldier by FMF do this. Although they sort of make you realise this through the use of structure and language, rather than plot.There are also ambiguous twists, like in Manuscript Found in Saragossa, where you don't even know whether the twist is real or just another layer of deception.Faust part 2's ending also comes as a sort of surprise for some (including Mephisto), since Faust never truly repents, he stays committed to his goal from start to finish, hurting innocents like Baucis and Philemon in the process.
Proper outlining. That's it
>>23817283Yes To those who read it: it is a twist and you know it. You thought he was allucinating or exageratting when he described it.
>>23817283The secret marriage in Jane Eyre.
Literary fiction is just the "drama" genre.
