How to craft a twist for your tale

Valerie J. Brooks

Have you ever been delighted with a twist in a story and wondered how the author did it? To find out, join the Willamette Writers Coast Chapter for an interactive workshop on creating plot twists with noir author Valerie J. Brooks at Newport Public Library this Saturday, Sept. 20.

You will learn how to create plot twists not only for your fiction, but also memoir and essay writing.

An introductory exercise will cover the two basic foundations of an effective plot twist: understanding suspense and how to create it and how to identify what drives your main character and what matters to them both externally and internally, using fiction and non-fiction examples.

Participants will also use their work-in-progress in exercises and prompts. If you don’t have a work in progress, please create prior to the workshop a set-up for a novel, memoir or essay with basics for characters, situation and conflict. Participants are encouraged to share their own examples throughout the workshop. A question-and-answer period will follow. Handouts and a list of additional resources will be provided.

An award-winning author, Brooks writes femmes-noir thrillers featuring the courageous, justice-seeking, damaged heroine Angeline Porter. Her awards include the Nancy Pearl Book Award, the International Readers’ Favorites Thriller Award and an Elizabeth George writing grant. New York Times best-selling author Heather Gudenkauf called Brooks the “queen of the femmes-noir thriller.”

Brooks is a staff writer for Mystery and Suspense Magazine. She lives in Leaburg, Oregon, with her best buddy, her pooch Stevie Nicks.

Saturday’s program begins at 2 pm at Newport Public Library, located at 35 NW Nye Street. For more information, go to willamettewriters.org.