You Look Familiar: Four Tips on Adding a New Twist to an Old Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday takes another look at ways to turn a well-used idea into something fresh and original. Enjoy!

There are more contradictions in publishing than words, and one of the more frustrating ones a trying-to-get-published writer faces is the old, "I want something fresh, but the same as what's selling" conundrum. But how do you know what's fresh and what's the same old, same old? And harder still, how do you put that fresh face on your "been-there-written-that" story?

Any plot can be made fresh with a new twist. It's our jobs as writers to put the brain cells to work and think up those twists. It also helps to remember that many well-loved genres or story types, are fun because the reader can see the end coming a mile away. My love of underdog sports movies is a classic example. I know the underdogs are going to win, but I'm on the edge of my seat anyway, and I cheer when they do win. The journey with new characters I can root for is what makes this type of story fun for me.

Four Tips on Finding the Fresh

1. Try a New Perspective

A different character can add a new dimension to a well-known story. Gregory McGuire took the world by storm by writing The Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch's perspective in Wicked. Jackson Pierce's Sisters Red is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood with a twist. Look at your story, but also look at your genre.

• What's typical in that genre? 
• Is there a character or character type that hasn't been heard from? 
• Is there a different take on what everyone assumes? 
• Can a sidekick or minor character take center stage for a new view on things?

(Here's more on finding something new in a done idea)

2. Try a New Location

A different setting can also add depth and dimension. Forbidden Planet is just Shakespeare's The Tempest on another planet. Meg Cabot moved Camelot to high school for her Avalon High series.

• Can you explore a fresh angle if you moved your story to new location? 
• A different city or even a different world? 
• What if you expanded it to epic scale? 
• How about narrowing it to a small area like a small town, or even a single house?

(Here are more ways to update an old idea)

3. Try a New Time

Clueless is just Jane Austen for the modern day, but giving it a teen setting made a classic story fresh again. Agatha Christie's, The Mousetrap rifts off Hamlet. Perhaps your story could benefit from a shift in time. Modernize if it's a classic, or even go classic if it's modern.

• Could it be set during a particular historical period that would work thematically with your conflict? 
• Would adding or eliminating a common piece of technology or knowledge shake things up?

(Here's more on adding a twist)

4. Try Doing the Opposite

Villains By Necessity by Eve L. Forward takes the classic fantasy quest novel and flips it by showing what happens after the Good Guys win, where the villains now have to save the day. Spielberg asked a genius question with "What if Peter Pan grew up?" and gave us Hook.

• If everyone expects your story type to go one way, what happens if it goes the opposite way? 
• What if you do what everyone knows you won't do? 
• What would happen if the hero lost instead of won? 

(Here's more on finding story ideas)

Finding the fresh in your work is vital, but you have a million ways to do that. Don't fret if your idea is tried and true, as long as you try it in a way that's uniquely true to you.

What common-stories-with-a-twist do you like? Do you have a common story you're trying to find a fresh twist on?

For more help on plotting or writing a novel check out my Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure.

Go step-by-step through plotting and writing a novel. Learn how to find and develop ideas, brainstorm stories from that first spark of inspiration, develop the right characters, setting, plots and subplots, as well as teach you how to identify where your novel fits in the market, and if your idea has what it takes to be a series.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure offers ten self-guided workshops with more than 100 different exercises to help you craft a solid novel. Learn how to:

• Create compelling characters readers will love
• Choose the right point of view for your story
• Determine the conflicts that will drive your plot (and hook readers!)
• Find the best writing process for your writing style
• Create a solid plot from the spark of your idea

Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure also helps you develop the critical elements for submitting and selling your novel once it’s finished. You’ll find exercises on how to:

• Craft your one-sentence pitch
• Create your summary hook blurb
• Develop a solid working synopsis And so much more!

Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure is an easy-to-follow guide to writing your novel or fixing a novel that isn’t quite working. 

Available in paperback and ebook formats.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.

When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.

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