Imagine when confidence collapses into horror and fate versus free will shakes us readers and theater goers, to the bones...Well, this is what Oedipus Rex, in Sophocles's play and others like it do to us. Such strong and shocking twists have been used by playwrights and story writers ever since story-telling took hold of our imaginations.

         Going back to Oedipus, as well as giving a title to a psychological complex, the twist in Sophocles's play points to the crimes Oedipus was trying so hard to solve and punish, only to find out that it was himself who was the guilty one. Strange! Yet, this was because he had killed his own father without realizing he was his father and then, he had married his own mother. In my opinion, no other twist can top that! If you have read of anything worse or more shocking, please let me know.

         Looking at other examples I knew of, I remembered Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. In this story's twist, we find out that the main character is not a victim but she is the person who faked her disappearance. Then, in another popular well-known novel, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Jane finds out Mr. Rochester, the man she's about to marry, has a wife hidden in the attic.

         Surely, many such stories follow along the footsteps of these classic works. So, I tried to think of them all together and point to their connecting ideas as I saw fit. Here are those ideas:

         * A great twist doesn’t only change the plot, but it also changes the understanding.

         * Strong plot twists are across all genres and eras. They are surprising and inevitable, and not just for a shock effect but also for deepening emotional and dramatic meanings.

         *They force the reader and the character to rethink the truth because this truth has moral, psychological, and/or philosophical importance.

         *Plot twists are perfect for shifting power among characters, while creating moral conflicts as well. When a quiet character is pushed to the forefront or when a hero must choose between loyalty and justice, the drama deepens. This is because it directly pulls at readers' emotions and makes the reader have an Aha! moment.

         To add a plot twist to a simple story we writers could:

         * Use foreshadowing but subtly, just to tap the reader's imagination that the outcome could be something different. This prevents the feeling later that the twist came out of nowhere.

         *Plant a red herring or two by making the reader expect a certain thing, and then reveal a different outcome.

         *Switch expectations from characters: For example, have the victim to be the mastermind or the monster, the hero.

         *Bring out into the open a secret that changes character motivations or the meaning in the previous scenes.

*Use an unreliable narrator or tell another version of the story from another character's viewpoint.

         In addition, some of the stories with strong plot twists always demand my re-reading them, to see if the emotional moments become tragic and earlier scenes gain new meanings. Then, some stories manipulate time and perception by using illusions and sci-fi elements. Plus, the plot twists raise the stakes by making a situation more dangerous or urgent. They also reveal hidden truths and redefine relationships and situations.

         Such plot twists make me question everything while I am reading a story because I feel an instability due to the emotional tension in those pages. Sometimes, I end up reinterpreting the entire story.

         If this isn't drama, I don't know what is.

          Until next time!