I have always been a fan of the "And the he woke up...." ending


joke. :yuck:


It is certainly an interesting question though, How does one write a twist.... by definition there cant be a formula.. or else it will just seem formulaic (sp?).. even if it was not predictable. I guess the trick would be to consider what the obvious ending is.. and avoid it at all costs. The danger of twists though is that most seem simply 'tacked' on at the end.. as though the writter got to the end and realised the whole story was far too linear, so they added the long lost brother to make it less so. (linear)
The best twists are written into the story long before they appear. Like: suggesting certain eventuations, which lead the reader to see that the story will not end the way the characters expect (this is called irony[sort of]) and then when it is time to spring the trap, tie in elements of the story that seemed inane at the time, to form and outcome that is both unexpected and resolving.