So You Want To/Mind Screw the Audience

So you decided a simple story-line everyone gets isn't good enough, huh?

You want something more complicated and interesting? Is that it?

This article will show you how to create an interesting story-line that will interest audiences and Mind Screw them at the same time.

First off, Dream Sequences and Flash Backs are your friends. They're good to use if say your character (or characters) are amnesiac or maybe missing a few memories. It's also good to help explain things prior to the story line. Maybe they're Dreaming the Truth.

Second, be ambiguous. In other words, try leaving the audience to figure things out. Ship Tease can work nicely if done right to make character relationships ambiguous. Also don't explain every little thing in the story line, that would make things too obvious. Leave some things to the imagination or the audience. Another thing to remember is that the audience still has to understand what's going on while having numerous theories and questions still at hand. You should let the reader Choose Your Own Adventure, letting them interpret the story-line in several ways instead of just the one you had planned for them. It can open new possibilities from Sub-Versions to Parodies or even another adaption or alternate retelling of the story-line (This can lead to a Cash Cow Franchise). This Loser Is You if you make the narrative too confusing, or too mind screwing. The key is balance and paying careful attention to the story at hand, making sure you know what you're doing and making sure to make sure the audience understands your work, yet still has questions and theories of their own. Am I screwing your mind yet?

Third, Breaking the Fourth Wall can be good depending on the narrative. It can screw people's minds even more and let the audience wonder if maybe there's someone else involved in the story-line. Then again... What if there's No Fourth Wall? That would cause even more mind screwing, but try not to over do it.

Breaking the Fourth Wall and use of Author Avatars screw minds even more. Comments by you the author/creator can also Break the Fourth Wall as well as provide clues or insight as to what's going on in your story-line or narrative. An Author Avatar can work to provide a similar effect (if using an Author Avatar see Arc Words) but if the Author Avatar is a character in the story-line (Say, The Hero or maybe The Chick) that can cause not only extra Mind Screw value but it'll give you a chance to live an alternate life you've never/might possibly never ever live (See Very Loosely Based on a True Story). Something that will work to a similar effect of an Author Avatar is a Narrator Character. These characters act as a medium between the author, the reader and the story's characters if the Narrator Character decides to intervene. They are not usually apart of the main cast and will only appear at certain points in the story.

Psychological Horror and Mind Screw can go hand in hand, making the genre even more confusing. Also see Through the Eyes of Madness and Mind Screw for more advice. However Mind Screw isn't limited to Psychological Horror alone. It can be included in other genres if you do it right. I'll put a few genres and how to make Mind Screw work (but do not feel obligated to fallow all the writing. I'm just putting it up there as an example):

For Romance/Love Stories you could have one of the love interests have a Dark and Troubled Past or Split Personality. Perhaps one of the Love Interests or even the protagonist (The Hero) could have strange visions or Flash Backs of the past. Perhaps they could see their future with each potential Love Interest?

For Science Fiction you could involve computers and technology. Perhaps the computers could act on their own, or is there a Ghost in the Machine. Perhaps the machines are apart of a single consciousness and the characters must figure out how to stop it. Mind Control may or may not be involved.

For Mystery and Detective genres perhaps you could have a riddle solver who can't solve riddles or a villain who uses mind-screwing tactics to play with the detectives mind. Hypnosis and Mind Control may also be one of the criminal's tactics which he uses to get away with his crimes (if not caught by the detective/hero that is).

You can also screw people's minds by making characters have psychological problems (whatever genre the work fits under does not matter), the most common being amnesia (See Amnesiac Hero) but don't limit yourself to that alone, giving characters other problems like short term memory or a Split Personality can also work depending on the story-line at hand. There are also other numerous psychological disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (you should have something in the character's backstory trigger this), Erotomania (what most Stalker with a Crush suffer from), Pica (this one isn't for those with weak stomachs...) and so on...

Am I screwing your mind yet or have I screwed it all up already?

I hope I have screwed all of your minds. I do love TV Tropes. As an aspiring writer myself, this site does give me ideas and advice. I hope I was help to all of you... Or am I?

Anime and Manga

 * the Boogiepop Series
 * Paranoia Agent
 * Red Garden
 * Ef a Tale of Melodies - the mind-screwing moments are rare, but Tale of Melodies has more of these moments than Ef a Tale of Memories
 * Ghost Hound (some elements of Science Fiction are here, but for the most part it's psychological)
 * Serial Experiments Lain (this is a good example of Science Fiction and Mind Screw merging together)
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion

Comic Books

 * Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

Film

 * Black Swan
 * The Shining
 * The Strangers
 * Be Aware, a short film by Joe Kamimura

Live-Action TV

 * American Horror Story

Music

 * Most Vocaloid songs are pretty mind screwy... "Matryoska" is a good start; "Alice of Human sacrifice" is another good one; "Circle You" and "Fear Garden" may be frightening to some.

Video Games

 * Ever17 made This Troper forget about their writers block with the high amount of Mind Screw
 * 999:Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors certainly gave us ideas as well, not to mention they have devteam members from both games!
 * The Shin Megami Tensei Series may screw your mind...

DO NOT CONFUSE WITH Mind Rape.