Cut off a story with neat twists (8)
I believe the answer is:
alienate
'cut off' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'a story with neat twists' is the wordplay.
'story' becomes 'lie' (story can mean a fabrication).
'with' is an insertion indicator.
'twists' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'twisting' mean this).
'neat' is an anagram of 'enat'.
'lie' going around 'enat' is 'lienate'.
'a'+'lienate'='ALIENATE'
(Other definitions for alienate that I've seen before include "divorce" , "Cause someone to feel estranged" , "Eat alien in order to make hostile" , "Set against" , "Estrange, disaffect" .)