John D. Brown gave a presentation at LTUE about Story Turns. His full presentation is available on his website at: http://johndbrown.com/2014/02/ltue-presentation-materials/  You can also find John on Twitter and Facebook.

His presentation titled: Story Turns gave some great advice on ways to make your story more interesting by adding twists and turns. Here’s a summary of some of the notes and interesting things I picked up from the presentation:

Purpose of Story Turns

  • Grab the reader’s attention
  • Make the reader want to turn the page
  • Control the pacing of the story

We want to make the reader curious, hope and fear for the character, and anticipate that something dramatic is going to happen.

What do Story Turns do?

  • Raise a question in the reader’s mind
  • Extend a question the reader already has
  • Answer a question the reader’s been wondering about

Things to Keep in Mind with Story Turns

  • The Beginning and Ending are two of the most important turns in the story
  • Use your scene structure to guide where your story turns should be
  • Surprise your reader. Turn their expectations in the opposite direction
  • Story turns drive pacing, NOT short sentences

Story Turn Techniques

John gave a great list of Story Turn techniques. Here’s a couple that I particularly liked:

  • An obstacle worse or different than expected
  • A threat the reader thought was eliminated comes back
  • A time limit is introduced
  • A question or mystery is posed
  • A character acts in an unexpected way
  • The protagonist’s solution is wrong

Definitely worth checking out John’s whole presentation from his website. Some great insight.