>>1566715
Without your manuscript I can't be terribly specific but - if defeat and a twist is what you're after consider some characters betraying the others. Sort of a cheap trick, but it's a classic

>>1566716
Yes, this is ultimately what I concluded, but the question is: How do you do a good betrayal? Do you have any favorite techniques?

>>1566716
yeah
in fact if there's a society in your story then you could have society betray your cast (maybe because your cast gets smeared)
concretely they may struggle to find resources, information or be pursued by the government

I think a compelling twist would be if around halfway through the story the protagonist finds out the antagonist is made completely out of string

Did you add a serial killer?

>>1566715
I don't really like betrayals. They usually feel cheap. Your goal is to RAISE the stakes, in a way that feels organic to the story.

This is the way to do it; in almost any book or movie, there's a notable shift around the 50% mark. A shift that changes the context or goal, an unexpected twist, some dramatic irony, or a low point/failure for the protagonist, or a success that reveals much greater problems... these all work. For example:
- In Blood Meridian, the gang goes from government-employed scalp hunters to outlaws on the run
- In Star Wars, they arrive to Alderaan to discover it's been blown up
- Gone Girl: we learn that his missing/murdered wife is fine, and she's framing him for her "death"

Something that really works well and often is: have your audience so worried about a potential problem, they don't see something worse coming down the line. For example:
- In Pulp Fiction, we're so fixated on whether or not Vincent will fuck Mia Wallace, we don't realize she's about to overdose on Heroin
- In Bugonia, we're so focused on Jesse Plemons trying to outwit a cop, we don't realize his brother is about to blow his brains out in the basement.
Again, the idea is to fill the audience with the thought of "X might happen, and that's bad and messy." And then drop Y on them, which is much worse. Both MUST be foreshadowed, but Y must be a lot subtler. They can't be random.

>>1567278
Good post, thank you for sharing.