Writers on Writing: Jack Black as R.L. Stine

I'll come out and say it: I love the movie Goosebumps. Jack Black, R.L. Stine, books coming to life, the creepy as heck ventriloquist dummy Slappy, what's not to love? It won't top the books or R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour, but it's hilarious. It also has some great lessons on writing and life. My personal favorite comes from a quote given by Jack Black in his role as R.L. Stine.

Before talking about the quote, I want to give you some information on the inspiration for the movie, R.L. Stine. R.L. Stine is an American horror fiction writer known best for the children's series Goosebumps and the teen series Fear Street. He has also written the Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, and The Nightmare Room series, as well as the Space Cadets trilogy and dozens of joke books. As of 2008, he's sold over 400 million books. He's been called the "Stephen King of children's literature," but considering that he's sold more books than Stephen King (last count for King was over 350 million), that might be underselling him a bit.

Simply put, if you were an American kid and a fan of horror, you probably picked up at least one of his books or watched a TV show with his name attached to it in some form at some point in your life. He's the King of Children's and Teen's Horror—the Master of Twists.

I can't give you the specific context in which the quote was said for fear of spoilers for the movie. Suffice to say, it's in an academic setting in which the character of R.L. Stine discusses the art of storytelling.

Every story ever told can be broken down into three parts: the beginning, the middle, and the twist.

Jack Black as R.L. Stine, Goosebumps

In addition to this being a great-sounding quote, it is also very true. Every good story does not just have an ending; it has a twist. Think of any story in any genre, and I guarantee you that you can break it down into these three parts. Take, for example, Romeo & Juliet. I'll keep it vague for anyone who hasn't read it (although the general plot is well known):

Beginning: Two teens from opposing families fall in love.

Middle: Teens' families' feud threatens to tear them apart.

Twist: Through a complicated series of events, each teen thinks the other died and kills themselves.

Of course, much more happens in the play than just that, but those are the bare bones. The beginning, the middle, and the twist. If the story just ended without a twist—say, if their plan to run away together actually worked—it would be a rather flat ending to a teen romance. We want to be surprised by the ending to our stories, be left with a desire to read more, even if there’s nothing more left to read.

I think that the recent “Microfiction Magic” challenge has been a prime example of how important the twist is to great storytelling. All the best microfiction stories that I have read on here thus far have had an eye-opening twist at the end. For example, one of my favorites is “A Tender Heart” by Aphotic. Although it starts out sweet and romantic, it ends in a horrific yet oddly poetic turn. That is the magic of microfiction—the ability to twist the narrative in so few words.

Now, the challenge is to take this wisdom—that every story has a beginning, a middle, and a twist—and apply it to longer works. It’s difficult to condense an entire story arc into 100 words, but it’s equally as difficult to maintain this formula in 600, 1,000, 5,000, all the way up to 80,000 or more words for novelists. We grow impatient and run the risk of showing our cards too soon, ruining the twist for our readers. We must remember the three distinct parts to our story, and if we decide to tread outside of such a structure, we must do so with a clear vision in mind. Otherwise, who knows what beast will be born out of our artistic endeavor?

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