The "Right" Path

I find it strange that stories can simultaneously be open-ended and destined. We generally think of stories as open-ended. There are millions of possible outcomes from a given situation. Writers simply pick one of the possibilities and move on to the next situation. However, we also have the opposite mindset, which is that everything happens because of set factors (personalities, desires, loyalties, etc). Can it be both?

Personally, I lean toward the fatalist side. I think that what happens next is a direct result of what just happened. Of course, this has its own problems. The biggest problem with that is how boring things can become. When you know that everything that will unfold already exists, it takes out the excitement of actually creating. Writing becomes no more than an exercise in logical progression. While I do like logical progression, I need more than that to get excited.

I think that a writer does have power and control. Fate only exists when things are set in motion and left alone. Imagine rolling a ball down a hill. Once you start it rolling, we all know where it's going to end up. However, if you put a ramp on the hill, that changes things drastically. And that's what writers can do: throw in a curve ball.

Suppose you have two characters trapped in a locked room. The standard story will be that the characters don't trust one another, get over their differences, and find a way out of the room. That's all well and good, but a little stale. As a writer, you can do so much to change this loosely-defined situation. Maybe a third character is found who completely shifts the dynamic. Maybe a ticking clock is added, like rising water levels, to add the stress level.

Suppose a hero is heading to the big castle with his team to take down the big evil bad guy. We all know how the story ends there, but what happens when they find another village being attacked and in desperate need of help? Now they need to decide which is more important: helping a few people or helping the whole land (but at the sacrifice of that village). What if the hero is given an option to run away to a safe land, free of tyranny? Now the hero has to decide whether to help others or help himself.

The way a character acts may be set in stone, but that doesn't mean the situations they get in are. Writers are the gods of their worlds; they can create as many challenges and temptations as they want. The creativity is in coming up with an interesting obstacle course for their characters to traverse.