Agent of Weird: Exploring the Write Fantastic

Agent of Weird: Exploring the Write Fantastic

The Five Types of Twist Ending

Deliver a sting in your tale

Alec Worley's avatar
Alec Worley
Jul 12, 2023
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978 © MGM

A twist is a moment of revelation within a story that throws into question all that’s gone before it. A twist is essentially a specific type of action or ‘beat’. Aristotle called it the ‘peripeteia’ (variously translated as ‘reversal’ or ‘sudden change’), referring both to the sudden downturn in the protagonist’…

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