The Problems with The Twist, Deus ex Machina, and Foreshadowing

So, you want to write a story. I do too! I've been thinking about "twists" (here defined as diverting from what the reader expects) lately and what makes them work or not. There seem to be too many pitfalls in executing one properly.


1. People expect there to be a twist

Let's say that your friends throw you a suprise party for your birthday. If they do it right, you'll be surprised. Now let's say that your friends throw you a surprise party every single year. Sooner or later, you're going to start expecting it and it won't be a surprise anymore. Now let's say that your friends decide they want to really surprise you this year by not throwing you a surprise party. Are you surprised? Yes. Are you happy? No. Your expectations were much higher than this and you feel let down.

Hopefully you will already be able to see the parallel, but I'm going to say it in so many words anyway. Depending on what genre you write, your readers will come to expect certain things out if you. If you write about a war, readers expect to see the war end by the time the book--or series--does. Et cetera, et cetera. But, of course, writers don't want to do what everyone else has already done--that's so derivative!--so they may decide to tweak the stereotypes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But one thing that has proven to be a bad idea 99.999% of the time is having the twist be that there is no twist. Readers will wonder, "how wil they twist it away from my expectations?" only to be let down by the fact there is nothing to reveal, just as the birthday werf in the above example.

I put forward this supreme rule to all storytellers: even a bad twist is better than none at all.

I, obviously, do not advocate bad twists. But would you rather have a surprise birthday party spoiled or eradicated? A party is still a party, after all.


2. Deus ex machina: Poof, the world is saved.

"Deus ex machina" is Latin for "god out of the machine." I do not particularly care for the phrase, but it has a long tradition following it, so I'll use it. The basic idea is that just when all hope is lost, the gods would spring out of nowhere and make everything hunky dory. This literary device was used frequently in Greek plays back in the day. And even though "deus ex machina" implies that a god is the one making things right, it need not be so. It could be anyone or anything that solves the problem and has no logical reason to be there. Classic example: Gandalf shows up on a giant eagle to save Frodo and Sam. Where did this eagle come from? Why didn't they use it earlier? (There's a video about this ginormous plot hole--warning, mild animated content!)

There are, of course, times where the key to victory coming out of nowhere can work. Most of the time, though, people will consider you a cop-out or just a bad writer. The way to avoid the deus ex machina is by foreshadowing.


3. Over- and under-foreshadowing

This is a huge, huge, HUGE part of writing well. You don't want the reader to know what you're planning, but you don't want them finding your story incongruous. You must walk the fine line between giving the reader enough to find the solution credible in your universe, but not enough that they spot it a mile away (this latter pitfall is the one I need the most work on).

The hardest part about making foreshadowing work is the fact that some people don't notice everything the first time around and others will understand instantly. Example from Avatar: The Last Airbender (Spoiler Alert!): There are about three or so mentions of a "lion turtle" and one shows up in the finale to teach Aang energybending. Of course, he doesn't understand the knowledge until the last possible second, where a voice over explains what's happening. Even though this made it highly unlikely that anyone would guess the ending, it made a lot of fans feel let down because it felt like a deus ex machina. Of course, if the ending is obvious, people will still harbor a desire for a twist, but end up leaving unsatisfied.


I can't really tell you how to fix your writing--hey, I'm still trying to fix my own!--but these are a few things that we should keep in mind as we write.