Writing is a Series of Choices

Let’s say you’ve got this idea for a story. Your main character stumbles upon the entrance to a cave. The opening is clearly marked as “entrance to this cool cave where your main character will not only find the secret treasure, but also the subtext of a journey that will lead them to discover secrets about themselves!”

Then your main character, let’s call her Maria, walks into the cave and finds a lit torch. Down the chamber of this really cool cave, there’s an arrow pointing to what could be discerned as treasure.

But wait, this is proving way too easy for Maria and when things are too easy for our main character, it is a way less compelling story and way less compelling for the character development.

So, Maria finds the entrance to this cave after searching for years. She believed it could have been in the Bermuda Triangle, marked by key points on the Bimini Road. Then, under an undiscovered temple for an obscure indigenous culture, there it was. The treasure cave. The one who her father (or maybe her mother) talked about in bedtime stories. The cave one (or both) of her parents perished in seeking.

Or maybe both of her parents are alive. They have a thriving accounting (or pool construction) business. All they ever wanted was for Maria to follow in their footsteps. No! Maria’s heart belonged to treasure seeking and cave exploring. She couldn’t be an accountant or actuary or insurance salesperson or pool construction expert.

She needed caves and treasures and all the subtext of character to be found there.

So, when she does find the cave, she uses a tree branch and fashions it into a torch. Or maybe she uses a flashlight, perhaps the flashlight on her iPhone because she still has service out here on the path marked by the Bimini Road because she was an early investor in Starlink…

I hope with my somewhat cliché idea my thesis is demonstrated: writing is a series of choices. As writers, we can make infinite amounts of choices with our stories. Maria could have been the result of a legacy of treasure hunters. Or she could have been a pioneer paving her own way.

She could have used a torch or her phone. She could have entered the cave and fallen into the clutches of her arch nemesis (who maybe used to be her childhood best friend). There are so many possibilities for story.

Every single one of the choices we make in story will beget more choices. Let’s say Maria is avenging her parent’s death in finding this cave. So then, what does she find in the cave? What treasure does she seek? What does it mean when she does find it? Does she even find the treasure?

The choices are endless. That’s the beauty of writing. There is no way to create story or write a story. And if anyone ever tells you there is only one way, RUN. Get as far away from them as you can.

The infinite choices allow for infinite possibilities and infinite paths there. All you have to do is make the choices and see where they take you. If we hold back (or try to avoid choice), then we’re left with a character loitering in front of the entrance to a really cool cave.