Initial States

A friend was talking with me about chaos theory. He was saying that the main idea of it is initial states. That is to say, if you do the same thing over and over again, you actually can get different results and not be insane, because the initial states of the materials will not be the same.

My favorite example is from the movie Jurassic Park. Ian Malcolm does an experiment where he pours a drop of water on Dr. Sattler's hand. The first time he does it, the drop falls to one side of her hand, but the second time, it falls to the other side of her hand. That happened because, although the experiment looked the same both times, there were countless differences in exactly where things were and how they fell, which changed the outcome of the results.

In your stories, consider the initial state of characters. You may understand their personalities, but where they find themselves in life could change entirely how they interpret a situation. Being born in wealth is very different from acquiring it personally. Having a friend involved in a dispute will make you more likely to believe their side.

A character could pass through a town that is in turmoil. Whether they enter at noon or at 2 PM could completely change who it is that they meet, the story they end up hearing, and what they believe the right thing to do is.

Granted, when you are writing a story, you get to choose what happens, so at best, this post could be analogous to playing the what-if game. But if you are writing on the seat of your pants, and you have created a scenario without a designated ending, this would be a way to experiment with how things could end up and to determine which would make the most interesting story.