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So, I am about halfway through my fantasy novel and I came up with a potential twist (okay, totally unexpected addition) for the ending. I can come up with a way to pull it off, but I’m not sure if it will ruin my book or not. There are a set of triplets (two boys and one girl) and their younger sister. One of the main themes of the book is the sibling bond that they have. I’m considering adding another sister, a twin to the single born girl, to the end (that would make five siblings). I can most likely make it happen in a reasonable way and it would help fix a few plot holes as well as provide me with an ending, but I don’t know if it will ruin the sibling bond theme I have in the beginning part of the book not to mention being perhaps unoriginal and boring. I’m on the fence. What do you guys think?
Some people fail; others learn what not to try.
@morgan Hi! I’m Natalie. Your novel sounds really interesting! I have been in the same position with my WIP like 3 or 4 times, so I understand. It sounds to me like this idea could really help you, but that’s just me looking in from the outside. If you’re worried about adding someone else into the sibling bond and messing it up (that’s what I gathered, but I could be wrong), could you maybe have this sibling bond grow to include her, maybe giving her a place or something? (This is my first time giving advice on here so I could possibly have it all wrong…)
Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10
Hello! It sounds like you’ve got a really interesting cast of characters. I’ve seen that it can be a bit challenging sometimes to add in a new sibling to an already well-established group of siblings, but with that being said, here’s a couple ideas for you to consider:
If you’re introducing this new character at the very end of the story and there is no sequel for the new character relationships to be explored in, I might advise against adding a new character, because it could distract from the growth of your current siblings and their relationships.
However, if you’re introducing this new character and there is still a good amount of time to explore their character and their relationships with the current siblings, then it might be fun and it could add to the growth and depth of their sibling dynamic.
It might be good to write both endings and let a beta reader tell you how they feel about each ending! Ultimately, it’s up to you and what you think feels right for the story and the characters.
I hope this helps! 🙂
Hello! Okay so I absolutely love characters, they are what draw me into a book so hopefully I can help some!
Here we go, so, I think it would be a cool idea.
Pros
1. Help fix your plot holes
2. Help with the ending
3. May actually add to your theme some.
4. would be interesting because I honestly believe the triplets with a younger sibling would be more cliche then triplets and a set of younger twins.
Ideas- I don’t know all about your story but these are just some ideas to get your brain moving!
Instead of another girl, maybe a boy?
Or make them quintuplets? (5 kids)Give them some conflict, between the two groups, or even between the sets themselves. For example
Perhaps the twins’ birth resulted in health issues for the mother or even death.
Perhaps one of the triplets love the twins and are so protective they ignore their fellow triplets and even hurt their relationship with the twins. Or, have their be a bit of a battle and rivalry between the two sets, and age can also be a HUGE influence when it comes to conflict.Are they really young? The other ones would be more protective or would ignore them and not want them around.
only a couple years younger, that would make them more like rivals because the older siblings would still pick in the younger but the younger would be older but still have the “I’m the baby” card.
if any of that makes sense lol.
now, a couple cons to think of,
1. More characters = more characters arcs= more work
2. Too many characters to connect with (tho don’t worry about this too much because as long as u do it well, there are plenty of books with over 5 MCs)
3. Going back and changing what you’ve already written.
Something to think about, sometimes you do need one main main character. They can be Mains, but you do need a protagonist. Someone u focus on just a tad more then the others. But if u can make it work u may not need this!
#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSeb1. This plot twist sounds like it would completely shock the reader. That isn’t in itself a bad thing, but if it’s unexpected because it doesn’t fit into the story properly, that’s not good. You want to be able to reread the manuscript from the beginning, and with every chapter, sense “ok, yeah, I could include a bit of foreshadowing and this extra person would make sense.” But if you are prepared to do some reworking to foreshadow, and if your story makes sense with this plot twist, a shock is not a bad thing at all.
2. I don’t know if this is what your story is about, but if part of the theme is that the single born one feels left out from her multiple siblings, then giving her a twin would kind of undermine that. On the other hand, it could also strengthen the sibling bond thing by exploring what it means to be a sibling – will the triplets and sister accept their new sibling?
3. And also, like someone already said, if you aren’t planning a sequel, this could be a bit of an unsatisfying ending, since the character won’t have time to get fleshed out. If you are writing a sequel, though, this is a great cliffhanger to leave the poor readers on ;P
Don’t worry, though, your WIP sounds very intriguing and I have no doubt you’ll be able to write it excellently! :))
I can't think of anything witty at the moment.
@godlyfantasy12 Thanks for the advice! The reason the added twin would be a girl is because the “single” child is a girl and they could be identical twins that way (you can’t have different sex identical twins). The theme is that the siblings are really close to one another and do everything together. The younger sibling is 11 months younger than the triplets, so not a huge age gap. And actually, the mother died after giving birth to the twins. You gave me some ideas, so thanks! 🙂
Some people fail; others learn what not to try.
@relia Thanks for the advice! Foreshadowing would be involved for sure, but not enough to ruin the surprise for the reader. The theme is that the four siblings are really close and do everything together and the youngest child works hard to keep up with her slightly older (11 months) siblings. I will most likely flesh out her character just slightly and then end the book, which I’m not sure would go over well with my readers. I don’t know if I will write a sequel or not, but if I could find the time and if people liked the first book, I definitely would.
Some people fail; others learn what not to try.
@jodi-maile Thanks for the advice! That is a problem for sure since I would probably end the book without really fleshing out her new relationship with her siblings much. I don’t know if my readers would appreciate that much. 😛 It really depends on how long my book is at that point. I don’t know if I will write a sequel or not, but if I could find the time and if people liked the first book, I definitely would. My sister also suggested writing two different endings, but I am wary to do that for two reasons. First, it would take a lot of time which I don’t have a lot of. Second, to write one ending or the other, I’d have to make minor changes to the middle of the book which would make me very unlikely to write a reasonable second alternative. I’ll have to think about it some more. Thanks for the tips! 😉
Some people fail; others learn what not to try.
@nanisnook Thanks for the advice! The idea would be to grow the sibling bond to include her, I’m just not sure if I can pull it off without ruining the rest of the book. I’ll definitely have to think about it some more. 😛
Some people fail; others learn what not to try.
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I decided to tag some people. 😛 The more the merrier! 😉
Some people fail; others learn what not to try.
@morgan there are rare cases of male and female identical twins (I love the idea of that lol. Or at least mostly identical lol)
#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSeb@morgan If it fixes your plot holes, I’d say go for it!
I think that adding another sibling could help strengthen your theme, as others have said before, you could probably work around with fleshing some of your characters out. And if you’re writing a sequel, I think that if there is a problem that arises in this book then it could be resolved in the next one.
Also, nothing wrong with unoriginal and boring. And I don’t think it is unoriginal or boring.
Good luck!
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into daysSure thing, and no worries! I totally understand why two endings would be difficult. I’m excited to see what you come up with in the end!
@devastate-lasting Thanks for the advice and encouragement! It would be pretty easy to fix the plot holes some other way, but I do like how my idea pulls seemingly unrelated things together.
Some people fail; others learn what not to try.
@morgan Since it’s your book and I haven’t read it, I can’t really say whether it will “ruin” your book, however I think if you want to do it, go for it! Ultimately, whenever I have to make a decision about my story, I decide with my gut/heart. Do you want this? Will it make you love your story more? If yes, do it! And by the way, I think that sometimes I (and maybe you too) get really fixated on making the perfect choice, but the great thing about writing is that you can always erase it and rewrite! I’ve made choices I’ve regretted in previous drafts of books and I always just fix them in the next draft! Writing is very flexible and forgiving 🙂
INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.
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