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A thrilling realization follows: Nella is no longer the only Black girl at the company.
But that excitement soon gives way to fear.
I tend to prefer twists that are especially bleak, says Harris.
Im not reading to ensure everyones okay.
1.Find What Feels Inevitable
1.
There are so many different ways to nail a twist, but it starts with believability.
A twist fails if you havent sold the character or the world enough.
I started writingThe Other Black Girlin January 2019, when I was working at Knopf Doubleday.
The best twists are ones that feel, in retrospect, almost inevitable.
They all die, but he survives and gets through the entire night.
Hes the only one left.
In these kinds of movies, usually at least one person survives.
This Black protagonist doesnt, and that would totally happen.
Weve already seen the main character get put through the wringer; weve already been satisfyingly horrified.
The twist comes from the fact that viewers know it couldve been so much worse.
2.Set the Stakes (Spoilers Ahead!)
When I started writingThe Other Black Girl, I already had an ending in sight.
And I knew that I wanted my protagonist, Nella, to fail.
By the time I was writing the first draft, I already knew that publishing wasnt for me.
I enjoyed it when I started, but it beat me down.
And it was exhausting.
In my experience, a lot of Black women do not stay in these spaces.
I wont get into all of the details, but he settled out of court.
I did not nail the ending on the first try.
Weve seen her get embarrassed at the office.
I also knew that Hazel would be some kind of robot.
I just didnt know exactly how.
3.Stick the Landing
3.
The revelation came from my partner, now my fiance.
And my fiance said, Well, what if its in the grease?
I was so mad.
Why didnt I think of this myself?
Many Black women see hair grease as this benign thing.
Its such a part of us.
It made the ending easier to write: What ultimately transforms her wasnt a pill Nella had to take.
She was already using it.
Then you find out that hes a serial killer on the very last page.
For my twist, I tried to go against some genre expectations and literary conventions.
Its like,Sorry, my bad.
The Other Black Girlis available now from Atria Books.
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