10 Ways to Create a Plot Twist

Convert your story into a "must read" by introducing a plot twist that no one expected!  Here are ten of the most popular ways to do it.

"No, I AM your father!" ~ Darth Vader

10 Ways to Create a Plot Twist

Top 10 Words Inspired by Filmmakers

Hitchockian - Conjures images of nail biting suspense, doesn't it?  Or in my case, The Birds (I think I am scarred for life!)

How about Chaplinesque?  Wellesian?  Perhaps in a flash of Spielbergian genius, you'll need one or more of these.

Top 10 Words Inspired by Filmmakers

Grammarist

I'm a-thinkin' we should round ourselves up a few little dwarves, wrap them up in Duck tape, take them down to the crick and have us a fantasy party.  All ya'll wanna come?

Grammarist - which word is right?  I found this site because I wasn't sure if the phrase I wanted was "deep-seated" or "deep-seeded".  (It's the former.)

25 Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names

25 Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names - The dot above an i or j?  It's a tittle.  The metal part on a pencil?  A ferrule.  Go, read, get your "learn something new every day" over with for the day. :)

Pet Peeves - Are You Making Agents, Editors, and Readers Crazy?

Author Don't Care, Agent/Editor/Reader Pet Peeves - An extensive list of literary peeves.  You may want to double check your WIP for these.

One of my favorites (and a huge oops!):

“Characters in YA novels who seem like the embodiment of one giant teen cliche, spewing every contemporary slang term the 40-year-old author could overhear at her daughter's cheerleading contest.”

As a bonus, the post includes an informational video about "bad ass" honey badgers.  Who knew? ;)  (Caution: Contains profanities)

Merriam Webster: Top 10 Favorite British Words

This Merriam-Webster lists ten popular British words, their definitions, usage, and origin.  Be sure to visit the original article, the usage alone is worth the time investment!

Dodgy - False or Dishonest
Shirty - Angry; irritated
Chuffed - Quite pleased; delighted
Peckish - Hungry (And to think, I thought it meant cranky - perhaps hungry and cranky are synonyms to me!)
Stroppy - Touchy; belligerent
Dogsbody - One who is obliged to do menial work; a drudge
Shambolic - Obviously disorganized or confused
Wonky - Awry; wrong
Bollocks - Nonsense (use caution with this one!)
Hard Cheese - Tough luck

Duolit's Character Generators

The fine ladies at duolit have created two character generators - mystery/thriller and young adult (YA) that I can't seem to live without these days. You can select sex and age range, and then allow it to generate name and appearance, or you can allow it to generate all of the above, or just some of the above.  Flexible, yes?  They will also email you the results, and, if you use the results in a story, they'd like to hear about it!

Mystery/thriller character:

Basic Info

• Name: Bryan
• Gender: Male
• Age: 18-24
• Job/Occupation: Government
• Marital Status: Married/Committed
• Children: 1
• Financial Class: Lower Class

Traits

• Basic Traits: Sensitive, Optimistic, Irresponsible
• Unique Traits: Ran away
• Role in Crime: Accomplice
• Crime: Identity Theft

Appearance

• Hair Color: Black
• Eye Color: Gold
• Body Type: Skinny

Young Adult character:

Basic Info

• Name: Nathan
• Gender: Male
• Age: 12-13 (8th Grade)

Traits

• Role: Outsider
• Basic Traits: Creative, Motivated, Paranoid
• Unique Traits: Has a terminal disease

Appearance

• Hair Color: Red
• Eye Color: Green
• Body Type: Lanky

750 Words - Get Into the Habit of Writing

I played with this along with the mystery character generator today, and I was pretty happy with the results.

750Words.com encourages you to write at least 750 words every day, and gives you the space to do it in private, where you don't have to worry about anyone reading it.  It awards you points: 1 if you write; 2 if you write more than 750 words.  Once you're done, the real magic starts.  You can view your stats, which give you rather humdrum run-of-the-mill things

How's the weather, anyway?  And your writing? How hot is IT?  How are you feeling?  And what are you talking about?

This is one of the parts I found completely intriguing.  I'm looking forward to writing again tomorrow so that I can see how much change there is in these graphs.

And to wrap it all up, a word cloud.  Very cool!