Nicolas Cole argues that every event in a story creates a choice point where multiple directions are possible. Like chess, there are often several right moves. Writers should train themselves to generate plausible options and pick the one that feels surprising and believable, not hunt for a single correct answer.
Whenever something happens in your story, it could happen to one character, it could be happening with multiple characters, whenever something happens, whenever there is movement, you have a new choice. You have a new choice to make, and the game is how do I make the next choice surprising and believable? I think a way of training your brain to identify A) these opportunities and B) the more important sub-skill is identifying the different options that you have. I love using the analogy of chess. If you're playing the game of chess, there are multiple right moves on the chessboard at any given time, and writing is the same way. Every time you make a choice, there are multiple right moves for where you can move the story next. And so I think it's helpful to train your brain in thinking in options. It's not so much like, "All right, I did this, now what's the one right answer?" No, no, no. This thing happened, now what options are available to me?
What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
