Tired Twists

 Three in a week - WOO HOO!

Anyway...

I'm tiring of the trope of the twist in a story.  Everyone wants to be the next M. Night Shyamalan and shock the audience, and it's getting boring.  I say boring because the twist is now expected, and if a twist is expected, it's not a twist.  Moreover, most "twists" now seem to be nothing more than the author doing what he or she can to upend the story completely.  The hero turns out to be the villain, the partnered pair end up related, the resource needed to save the world was that thing they destroyed in Act I, etc.  It feels like just a way to pull the rug out from under the audience, and it feels both contrived and disingenuous.

Yes, audiences like to be surprised, but usually only within the confines of the story.  They want a happy ending(usually), and they want to walk away feeling satisfied.  Unfortunately, so many writers feel that the only way to generate buzz or get the audience talking is to crap on them as completely as possible.  I can spot the twist a mile away now because all I have to ask about a third of the way through a story is, "What would piss me off the most?"

A real twist is truly unexpected.  But beyond that, the way to get the best reaction out of a twist is to leave some mystery in the story to begin with.  Leave something out that the audience needs to know to complete the adventure.  Don't come right out and say it, but let them infer that something is missing.  There's an unsolved murder, there's an unknown threat headed towards them, there's a moment from the past that will unlock the solution today...something that they can look forward to.  It doesn't have to be rote, but just pulling out an insane twist for shock value can be jarring.  Sure, it works every once in a while, but when the reader begins to expect it, it loses value, an the story loses meaning.