What a Cute Lil' Centipede!

Fred walked down the street, chomping madly on his jelly donut and trying vainly to keep the jelly off of his freshly-pressed tie. He was thoroughly enjoying his day, save for that little incident this morning. Fred shrugged. It wasn't like he tried to run over the cute little centipede with his bike! He just wanted a closer look...and got a wee bit too close. But it was clearly the centipedes fault. It should have been more careful. Fred licked the remaining jelly from his fingers and headed inside of his house, smiling at his favorite antique neon hippo figurine collection that always greeted him at the end of the day.


Fred was exhausted. Centipede-running-over is tough work for a guy like Fred. He headed to his tiny bedroom that sat in the corner of his house and lay down in his wrinkle-proof sheets. He sighed, closed his eyes, and let sleep take over from there.


The centipede listened. All was quiet. It grinned, well, rather, something like a grin consisting of antennae lifting and head bobbing and assorted squeaking sounds. It stealthily creeped into Fred's window, squeezing between the windowsill and the glass where Fred had never bothered to fix the crack. The centipede wriggled around Fred's house for a while, enjoying it's freedom in this new world. Then something bright caught its eye. The neon hippos. The centipede grinned evilly and let out a menacing cackle that rattled the windows and doors.


It was a grueling journey up to that cabinet that held those antiques, but the centipede had always wanted to be a mountain climber, so its experience paid off. When it reached the cabinet, the doors swung open, because since Fred was so exhausted, he forgot to lock it. The centipede let out another cackle and swung its body around, causing all of the figurines to shatter on the ground in a tinkling symphony. The centipede scuttled away, pleased with its work.


If you ever saw Fred, and if his grief wasn't too much, he'd tell you one thing: "I really wish I had fixed that crack in the window."


A lot of really good authors will take a really tiny detail from earlier in the plot, and use it on you at the end as an insane plot twist that leaves you with your mouth open catching flies. It's a good way to catch your readers off guard, and essentially a way to add suspense to the story. (I know, my centipede story wasn't the best example, but when you have an idea, you write it down before it slips away.)


This way works for a lot of authors, but you have to be able to pull it off. If I just had the centipede just skipping along and singing instead of having it invade Fred's house and ruin his antiques, it would have been a really dull plot twist. The first would have simply been saying that the centipede lives, the latter would say more.


Of course, sometimes the plot twist of just seeing someone alive is enough. Y'know that dead guy that you think you killed off with the candlestick? Well, he drank some cranberry juice and now he's kind of alive again. If that said dead person is a villain, even better!


So you see, it rather depends on the context you're in to know what plot twist will work the best. But use tiny details that you think readers who are not careful will certainly miss, and use them to you advantage! Leave them with their mouths gaping open and still catching more flies long after the book is done.


<3 Seana