Week 6: Multiple Choice Writing

So, you've been thinking of a setting. Maybe it's a cabin that someone (you don't know who) built many eons ago, made from space wood. Wood that defies gravity, maybe. And the main character, an astronaut escaping a bad marriage (or trauma or a significant loss) back on earth, has landed on Mars and stumbled upon this cabin.

But Mars is uninhabitable, so who could be living in this cabin. Is that smoke pillowing upwards from the chimney? Why is there a chimney? Isn't the air not breathable? Is there a creature in there who can't breathe oxygen or someone who breathes oxygen, but has adapted to the environment on Mars in order to breathe and erect a chimney?

No matter on these questions, astronaut. You need to focus on this cabin. This mission was meant to find natural minerals on Mars (or maybe natural gasses, or natural resources, or possible spaces for terraform), not to find mysterious cabins. Why is there a cabin?

Then, the door creaks open and who stands in the door is the husband the astronaut is trying to outrun! Or maybe it's the person who inflicted the trauma. Or maybe it's the person who passed away and they didn't pass away. They were on Mars the entire time, building cabins and adding chimneys to it.

What happens next?

Well, I'm not sure. There are so many choices and that's the nature of writing. One choice begets another choice begets a series of choices. When we make one choice as a writer, then that means we have to make another series of choices. The decisions can range from the small and seemingly insignificant to the earth shattering and life altering.

We wade through choices as writers. So, when you're done writing, don't feel bad about vegging on the couch. Or forcing your loved ones to pick a place to eat. You've made enough decisions for the day. Allow those choices to ring true for character and progress the plot. In the meantime, you can figure out why there was a chimney on that cabin in the first place.