Can you share an experience where a plot twist or unexpected turn in your writing surprised even you, the author?

I was writing an inspirational piece about how your strength lies within. It seemed like a straightforward message, and I figured I’d write something uplifting about resilience and inner power. As I worked through it, the piece began to shift.

The more I explored the idea, the clearer it became that strength wasn’t just about going it alone. It was about knowing when to pause, admit challenges, and let others help. What had started as a message of self-reliance evolved into a reminder that true strength often includes the courage to reach out and allow others to share the journey.

By the end, the piece had changed completely. Instead of a typical message about inner resilience, it became a reflection on how strength can mean embracing support instead of standing alone. That twist gave the piece a depth I hadn’t planned for, and it’s those surprising turns that often reveal the most valuable insights.

I think the best example of this kind of thing is when you twist your own twist. I usually go into a story knowing what I want the twist to be and where it will happen (within reason). However, once you really get into the writing process and flesh out your characters/storyline, you often find that the initial twist doesn't quite work anymore and needs to be altered. That's when you discover a whole new twist was actually staring you in the face the whole time.

Another example, I remember writing a novel where the main character witnesses her friend - one of two twins - die from a distance. The death is written to be one of the twins because of the clothing they were wearing, but a flashback eventually shows it to be the other twin. To make the twist even more evil, I included the letters WRONG TWIN at the start of each sentence during the death scene as a cool little easter egg.

In my Panos books, Leeson was supposed to be a throw-away character. After writing the first scene between him and Sorch in Another Stupid Spell, I was shocked at their chemistry, despite the two being from very different backgrounds.

So I brought him back later in the book as a point of comparison between his magical education and Sorch's. And that worked out so well, Leeson became a main character in the the next two books of the series, and in the first two books of the second trilogy as well .It's rare for me to feel so strongly about a character that I change the entire plot and flow of a series to make sure that they get more screen time, but that's exactly what happened with Leeson.

You might find that authors who do heavy outlining have less surprises during the writing process, but when they do happen the impact is far more profound. It takes a lot to get an author to deviate from a carefully crafted tale.

I see writing as archeology. While staying true to structure and character, it's about unearthing the story, chipping away at the rock and stone piece by piece until it's revealed fully. I have a general road map for every script I write - I like to know where I'm going - but I also like to be surprised along the way. I've countless examples where the characters surprised me, and often it's a subconscious thing; all along I'll have been writing in a certain direction without even realizing, and when the twist happens it seems inevitable.