Applying sealer to your canvas is much like painting. Using a clean brush, apply an even layer of sealer over your entire canvas. Take care to ensure every inch of your painting is covered to protect it fully.
Plot Twist Ideas: 8 Great Ideas for Writers
If you’re anything like me, you love a story that has a surprise plot twist that makes you wonder how the writer tricked you so easily.
As writers, a plot twist is one of the best devices we can use to build tension, reveal character details, and switch up the direction of the plot. Adding your own plot twist to a story or novel is no easy feat; readers aren’t easy to trick.
You’re probably wondering, “How do I write a great plot twist readers won’t see coming?”
In this article, you’ll learn how to write your own plot twists, which types are best for different stories, and some plot twist examples.
What Is a Plot Twist?
A plot twist is an unexpected plot point that changes the direction of the story. It doesn’t need to appear in any specific part of the plot, but it needs to be set up correctly. A good plot twist is something a reader doesn’t see coming.
While your twist needs to be a surprise, it needs to be inevitable. If your reader goes back through the story so far, they need to be able to identify the clues you cleverly hid in the details.
We expect plot twists in certain genres, such as mysteries, thrillers, and crime stories. Writers in these genres use twists to keep the reader guessing about who the criminal might be and whether the protagonist will beat the antagonist at the end.
However, plot twists aren’t limited to only crime genres. You’ll find incredible twists in romance, fantasy, and literary novels. Beth O’Leary used a plot twist in her romance novel The No-Show to reveal an important character detail, which surprised readers, but it was crucial to the plot.
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Types of Plot Twists
There are three types of plot twists that can appear in any genre type. These types are the revelation, unexpected consequences, and misdirection.
In a revelation twist, the writer presents new information that changes the direction of the plot from that moment. Your character might discover they have been betrayed. An unreliable narrator could realize they’ve been naive and start seeing the world differently.
Unexpected consequences mean your character enters a key scene expecting the events to go one way, but then something completely different happens. A great example is in The Picture of Dorian Gray . When Dorian goes to check the painting, thinking he has redeemed himself, he discovers the painting looks even worse than before.
Misdirection is a great twist that tricks your reader into believing the main characters have resolved their conflict, but then something shows the assumption was wrong. This is great for mysteries when the killer appears to be caught, and then the actual murderer appears.
3 Tips on How to Write a Plot Twist
In order to write a good plot twist, there are some important tips to follow that will ensure you’re keeping your readers surprised and satisfied.
Tip 1: Build Your Twist From the Beginning
Building your twist into the entire story from the beginning means it’ll have the impact you’re aiming for. A great example of this is Fight Club , where we are introduced to Tyler Durden from the opening scene in the book, when we’re given the first set of clues that set up the revelation.
Don’t let your great plot twist idea appear out of nowhere. When the reader discovers the big reveal, you want them to kick themselves for not noticing sooner.
If you want your twist to be a random act of God, a change of fate, a natural disaster, or that a part of the story was a dream, you need to make sure your setup is perfect to ensure the reader accepts it as plausible.
Most writers who want to include a plot twist will write the plot backward from that moment when planning the story. This allows the story development to feel natural.
Tip 2: Bury Your Plot Twist Clues
Plot twists need to be a surprise, otherwise they’re just not going to impress anyone. You’ve just created the list of clues that need to be included for your twist to make sense. Now you need to bury them in the writing until you’re ready for the reader to find them.
Action scenes are perfect places for you to drop in clues because your reader is distracted by what’s happening in the scene. The details might seem irrelevant, but they’ll become important at the moment of the plot twist.
You can also use misdirection to lead the reader toward the wrong assumption, but you’ll need to make sure the deceit isn’t obvious. Also, don’t send your reader to too many dead ends, or they’ll give up guessing.
Tip 3: Avoid Using Cliché Twists
If there’s something worse than a twist that doesn’t make sense, or that we saw coming a mile off, it’s a twist we’ve seen a million times.
The best plot twists are impressive and memorable the first time we read them. Therefore, it’s so easy to spot them if someone else is gearing up to use it in their writing. Readers develop a sixth sense about twists, so you can’t fool them.
Some examples of cliché plot twist ideas include:
- The antagonist was really the protagonist’s father.
- None of it ever happened because it was just a dream.
- There was only ever one hero that could save the day, and it turns out it’s the protagonist.
- Someone faked their death and returned later to save the day.
Start with a Clean Canvas
Before we start our pumpkin adventure, we need a clean slate. Starting with a clean canvas ensures that your work will look its best. Let’s get into it.
Choose Your Canvas Size
First things first, you’ll need to decide on your canvas size. Consider your design, the space where you plan to display your artwork, and your comfort level with painting. A smaller canvas can be a good starting point for beginners, while a larger canvas offers more space for detail and creativity. The choice is yours—there’s no wrong answer when it comes to easy pumpkin painting on canvas.
Prep Your Canvas
Once you’ve chosen your canvas, give it a quick once-over to make sure it’s ready for painting. Dust it off, if needed, and apply a layer of gesso. Gesso is a white paint mixture that helps prep your canvas, ensuring that the paint adheres better and does not soak into the canvas. It’s a small step that can make a big difference in the outcome of your pumpkin painting.
Select Your Paints
Next up: picking out your paints. Acrylic paints are a great choice for beginners— they’re easy to work with and dry relatively quickly. You’ll definitely need orange for your pumpkin, but consider also getting white, black, and a few other fall colors like red, brown, and yellow. These will come in handy when we move on to the details of your easy pumpkin painting on canvas.
Now that we have a clean, prepped canvas and our paints ready, we’re all set to start creating!
Choose Your Pumpkin Design
Now that you’ve prepared your canvas and chosen your paints, it’s time to decide on the design of your pumpkin. This step allows you to express your creativity and style, making your painting truly one of a kind.
Find Inspiration
Before you start sketching, you might want to find some inspiration. Look around you—fall is full of natural beauty that can inspire your pumpkin design. You could also look at paintings or drawings online for ideas. Remember, the goal is to create an easy pumpkin painting on canvas, so don’t stress too much about coming up with something complex. Simple can be beautiful too!
Sketch Your Design
Once you have an idea in mind, it’s time to sketch your design. Use a pencil to lightly outline your pumpkin and any other elements you want to include on your canvas. Don’t worry if your sketch isn’t perfect— it’s just a guide for your painting. Remember, this is your creation. Trust your instincts and have fun with it!
Transfer Design to Canvas
Now, let’s bring that design to life. Start by painting your pumpkin outline with a light color—this could be white or a light orange. This creates the base for your pumpkin and makes it easier to paint over with your chosen colors. Remember to be patient and enjoy the process. After all, easy pumpkin painting on canvas is all about having fun while creating something beautiful.
With your design sketched and transferred, your canvas is starting to come alive. But this is just the beginning. Let’s keep going!
Paint Your Base Coat
With your design in place, we’re ready for the next pivotal step—painting your base coat. This stage is all about laying down the foundation color for your pumpkin. It’s time to see your pumpkin start to take shape!
Select Base Color
First things first: It’s time to select your base color. This is the main color that your pumpkin will be, typically a shade of orange. However, you can always go with a non-traditional color like teal or purple for a unique twist on your easy pumpkin painting on canvas. The choice is all yours. Go with what feels right for you!
Apply Even Coat
Now, it’s time to apply your paint to the canvas. Dip your brush in the paint and start filling in your pumpkin with your chosen color. Aim for an even coat across the entire pumpkin. Don’t worry if you can still see the canvas through the paint— we’ll be adding more layers to create depth and richness in the final result.
Let Dry
Once you’re satisfied with your base coat, it’s time to let it dry. This is a crucial step in the process— you want to make sure your base coat is completely dry before you start adding details and accent colors. While waiting, you might want to take a small break, or maybe start thinking about the details you’ll add next. Remember, easy pumpkin painting on canvas isn’t a race— it’s about enjoying the process and creating something you love.
With your base coat done and drying, your pumpkin painting is starting to look like a real masterpiece. But we’re not done yet— up next, adding details and accent colors to bring your pumpkin to life.
Twisting fine motor skills activities
A skill essential to everyday survival in this world of packets, jars, buttons and knobs, twisting is a fine motor skill that is often overlooked…
Wind-up toys
Build a collection of inexpensive wind-up toys; they will build up that twisting strength and action and provide children with a great reward as the toy unwinds.
Nuts and bolts
Children love to tinker, so providing a tray of nuts, bolts and washers in a variety of sizes always proves popular and promotes ‘twisting’ whilst providing lots of creative design fun.
Add metal cutlery holders with holes for children to thread the bolts through before twisting on the nuts and washers.
Bottles and jars
A really simple but highly engaging and effective activity is to provide a basket full of small jars, bottles and containers and their corresponding lids for children to explore.
As well as the twisting motion, this activity encourages lots of size and shape sorting as part of their play.
Locks and keys
Keys and locks hold eternal curiosity for children. Building up a basket of different sizes and shapes is great for encouraging that twist action as well as the hand-eye coordination needed to put keys into locks.
Try taking this a step further by building your own lock board, where children can freely explore a wide range of locks and bolts for tiny fingers.
Spinning tops
Age-old fun for little fingers, spinning tops are great for developing twisting skills, and the large pump-action ones are good for building gross motor skills in shoulders and arms.
The possibilities for open-ended exploration on a tray are immense, especially if you add timers and stopwatches to the mix.
Co-ordination fine motor skills activities
As I’ve already mentioned, fine motor skills require the development of both strength and coordination, so here are some activities that promote the latter…
Pumpkins and hammers
This fun seasonal activity involves pumpkins, golf tees and tiny hammers. Letting children hammer the tees into the pumpkins is brilliant for building hand-eye coordination.
Hint: tap tees into the pumpkins with a big hammer beforehand to provide guide holes – this allows children to use toy wooden hammers and still be able to get the tees into the pumpkins.
Out of pumpkin season, try using half a melon or a watermelon. Alternatively, hammer coloured matchsticks into play dough.
Threading
Threading is one of the most common fine motor activities, but with a little tweaking it can be given a new lease of life. Try threading beads onto stretched-out metal egg cups, or push spaghetti into foam for fun straw threading.
Curtain rings and cup stands
This is a heuristic play activity that builds on hand-eye coordination, as well as providing lots of sorting, matching and size talk.
Collect lots of wooden curtain rings in different sizes and colours. Use wooden cup trees to give children something to hang the rings on, and add a wooden kitchen roll holder to make a curtain ring sorting tower. This is great for really small children and babies.
Rice and sand
Using small containers and a range of messy play materials is great for building coordination. Try colouring some rice or sand for added excitement and engagement. Plastic shot glasses are ideal tiny containers and come in a range of bright colours and designs.
Bring on the play dough
I can’t go without mentioning play dough. A staple of early years provision and a favourite with children, it can be made in a rainbow of colours and scents to stimulate the senses.
Whilst children play, encourage them to explore the full range of actions to build up hand and finger strength. Try squashing, squeezing, rolling (into balls and worms), cutting and pinching.
Kirstine Beeley is an independent trainer, author and consultant, with experience of teaching in early years, primary and SEN settings.
- Subject: Physical development
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