Per 
Subversive [səbˈvəːsɪv] (adj.): seeking or intended to subvert an established system or institution.
This device is able to make or break a narrative. It's well known by everyone, but not everyone is able to make it work. It's the common trend in movies, TV shows and books today.
It's the plot twist, or if you wish to be more formal, the plot subversion.
Most people know how it works: You expect A to happen in the story, but B happens instead, blowing whatever expectations you have out of the water. Now, the question is whether they are able to make it work well in whatever medium the narrative is told in1.
So, I am here to tell you how to make a plot twist work successfully, and allow your audience's mind to be blown away.
1. Plot subversions must make sense.
Let's take a look at an example of a story I just came up with to demonstrate how to create a bad plot subversion in a narrative.
Reese Martens glanced over at the beast in front of him. Those sharp eyes. Those sharp teeth, bared and ready to strike. He steadied himself, spear in hand, ready to strike the beast.
The beast charged at him. He gulped, and charged too.
The beast reached him first. The spear tumbled out of his hand, and he collapsed on the muddy ground, wheezing and gasping in pain.
He was dying. Deep down, he knew that the beast had won, and he had lost.
Suddenly, he woke up. "Thank goodness it was just a dream." he said to himself.
THE END
This is a example of how not to do a plot subversion, not only because the writing and plot are poorly written and very generic, but also because:
- The plot twist was not built up/foreshadowed properly, forcing the audience's expectations to run dry prematurely.
- The plot twist was incredibly generic. The 'It was all a dream' plot twist is the oldest and most generic plot twist in history, and unless you know how to make it work, don't ever use it. Ever.
- There's no potential story continuation that can come after the twist. If it was all a dream, then all of the events that happened beforehand were all fake, and that's it. There's nothing else to create a cliffhanger or anything else that is able to keep the audience interested.
Overall, this plot twist is incredibly forced and lazy, and just implies to the audience that the writer was too lazy to continue the story, and just opted for the 'easy way out'.
With that in mind, here's how it can be improved.
Plot twists must be able to fit into the overarching narrative that you want to push forward. For example, if your plot is about or focusing on a guy named Bob and his apparent 'insanity', your plot twist must also be about Bob, or anything linked or coming back to Bob, like implying at the end that Bob is not actually insane, and his insane ramblings came true.
Any plot twist that strays too far from your narrative, or has no link to the narrative whatsoever is a bad plot twist, and should be avoided in your narrative.
2. Plot subversions may need to be sufficiently built up for them to work well in the narrative.
Once your plot twist is able to make sense in the context of your narrative, you may need to build up your twist for the audience to sufficiently be surprised by it when it comes.
With that, let me introduce two plot devices that could be used for that purpose: The Chekhov's Gun, and the Red Herring.
- Chekhov's Gun is a plot device involving the use or implementation of an object introduced earlier on in the story. Initially built up to seem insignificant, the object will later be revealed to be an important part of the story, affecting the character's journey in a significant way.
For example, a piece of paper deemed as trash and thrown away by the main character may be revealed to be the actual object that the character needed to defeat the main villain.
The plot twist built up with Chekhov's Gun is that an object that the audience expected to be useless turns out to be very important, changing the tides of the narrative and changing the expectations of the audience regarding the climax.
One example of a Chekhov's Gun in the SCP Wiki is SCP-1422 by communismwillwin, about an anomalous phenomenon in Yellowstone National Park in the USA. Seems OK, and pretty insignificant, right? Turns out that SCP-2000, essentially a solution for society to rebuild itself following any potential apocalyptic event, is located in Yellowstone National Park itself, meaning that it is possible that 1422 might have been caused by 2000 itself. While this meaning may be debated, and may be false, the fact that 2000 is closely tied to 1422 essentially makes 1422 a Chekhov's Gun in 2000's narrative.
- The Red Herring is a plot device involving the use of an object also introduced earlier in the story. However, unlike Chekhov's Gun, this object is essentially built up to be significant, only to be revealed as being insignificant later on in the story.
For example, a briefcase that is constantly mentioned throughout the story and built up to be incredibly significant to the character's arc turns out to just be an ordinary briefcase that does nothing to change the character's story.
Similar to Chekhov's Gun, the plot twist built up with Red Herrings is that an object that the audience expected to be very important turns out to be insignificant, changing the tides of the narrative and changing the expectations of the audience regarding the climax.
An example of a Red Herring in the SCP Wiki are the SCP-001 Proposals written by prominent writers on the site, about potential world-altering events, realisations and monsters. Sounds pretty important, right? Turns out that most, if not all, of the proposals are revealed to be fake, and that their purpose is to prevent people from learning about the real SCP-001. Hence, the proposals are essentially Red Herrings, as they are built up to be important, but are actually unimportant in the wake of the real SCP-001.
With these two devices, you can build up a basic plot twist by essentially subverting the audience's expectations and running them into the ground with your deceptive writing.
3. While a double subversion in a story can be used to trick the audience not only once, but twice…
A double subversion is when you are able to subvert the audience's expectations twice. For instance, the audience just experienced a plot twist, but you wind up adding another plot twist within the plot twist, tricking the audience once more and making them feel stupid.
Using the earlier example of Bob, an example of a double subversion is when Bob, initially revealed to be right after all as all the stuff he predicts occurs exactly as he predicted, turns out to still be insane, as the occurences turn out to be in his own mind, and they didn't happen in real life.
The double subversion is incredibly hard to do, considering it's a plot twist within a plot twist, and you are required to think of how to subvert a subversion. Hence, unless you have a very clear idea what you want the double subversion to be about, don't use it in your story.
4. …sometimes, you'll find that unexpectedly playing the story straight also works in fooling the audience.
Another way to trick the audience using a plot twist, is by not including the plot twist at all. To elaborate, you have basically foreshadowed a plot twist in your narrative, and the audience expects the plot twist to occur, but at the end, you trick them by playing the story straight without a plot twist at all.
Using the earlier example of Bob, again, an example of this is when you foreshadow that Bob was actually right by building up the circumstances of his predicted event, but then at the end, the event does not happen, and Bob turns out to be insane after all.
Compared to the double subversion, this technique is significantly easier to be done, so I would recommend using this technique in your writing.
So far, I've touched on the different tips and tricks you can use to subvert your audience's expectations. Now, let me share the most important tip for plot subversions with you.
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Are you ready?
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Here it comes…
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5. You don't need a plot subversion for your story to work well.
Tricked you, didn't I?
No? All right then.
While plot twists are popular in pop culture today, showing up in movies, TV shows, and books, sometimes you'd find that telling your story straight from start to finish, without any twists whatsoever, also works well with the audience if they're not picky.
The most important thing to learn from this essay is that while plot twists are good in attracting audiences and are recommended if you wish to write a suspense or horror story, you don't always have to use it. Bob can remain insane. Reese Martens can kill the beast. It does not always have to be subverted.
A lot of SCPs and tales on the site tell a direct story and don't try to subvert expectations. However, they're still immensely popular, and rack up a lot of upvotes.
In conclusion, while plot subversion is a good trick you can use to make your story good, you should not focus too much on it, because sometimes, you'd find that simplicity works as well.
That's all. Good luck with your future writing, authors!
