My morning has been made complete thanks to this: an illustrated list of the 42 essential third act twists from the web comic Dresden Kodak (so thank you, AbeBooks, for pointing me in its direction).
From the thriller's peripeteia: "amnesiac villain kidnaps self" to its Deus Ex Machina: "autistic boy solves crimes", and from mystery's anagnorisis "all the butlers did it" (just look at that scary picture) to fantasy's brilliantly Narnia-esque "Christ analogue backfires", it is a work of genius.
I love science fiction's "robot reveal" and "reverse robot reveal" – more scary pictures – but my favourite is fantasy's Deus Ex Machina, which is, quite simply, "Eagles". So true (hello Gandalf) but so, when put like that, ridiculous.
Take a look. I bet it'll make your day just that little bit better.
