The Illusion Of Free Will

Fate flies in the face of free will. I know I can choose my choices. Right? Right. I see two or more options, I think about them I measure and weigh them, and I pick one. And maybe I do it very carefully over the course of weeks. And maybe I do it in a fraction of a second. But, no matter how impulsive I am, I know I have processed and considered and chosen my actions. So how dare I tell me that everything is destined to happen based on the status of things before I was even conceived? Well, I'm sorry, but unless science tells me otherwise, I have to say that we don't have free will because of cause and effect.

So, what do we have then? We have the illusion of free will. We think we have it. We believe we have it. And we think that we are making a decision rather than technically going through the motions. And people often get very depressed at this concept. They want to run away and hide, somehow remove themselves from the world because they feel trapped or useless within it.

But we should not do that. We should make use of this illusion. Illusions are incredibly powerful. With the power of illusion, you can look to be a god. With the power of illusion, you can become whoever you want to be. With the power of illusion, you can do far more than you could ever do if you feel like a prisoner of fate.

This applies both to you as a writer as well as your characters (if they choose to believe so). What you choose to believe can significantly affect what you are able to do. The mind is a powerful force. Make use of it. Write, read, observe, learn, understand, acquire, internalize. Do tremendous things because you can. Whether it's an illusion or a reality, you can make them happen.