Ask Nicholson: Choices
By Scott Nicholson
(Ever wanted to be
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is an example of one of the topics.)
Choices.
Do you make them, or do they make you?
Every story, or any work of art, or any human
undertaking, is nothing more than the sum of a series of
choices. Often, our most significant life choices are not
the result of measured consideration; instead, they are
the haphazard impulses that doom or save us--the love
letter never sent, the spontaneous affair, the one
drunken time that "safe sex" seems too
restrictive, the trip not taken, the reckless financial
gamble, the passionate moment of violence, the decision
to go an extra five miles per hour on an icy road, the
blinding tantrum that compels us to walk away from our
jobs or families.
For the author, the choices usually begin with the idea.
Since the universe is brimming with ideas, the problem is
not in finding them but in selecting one, or combining
two or three, and committing to their development. After
that, the characters are built and set in motion. While
the author is making decisions about these characters,
they are also bringing themselves to life, spawning their
own motivations, and blazing their own trail so that even
the most diligent outliner can be surprised or ambushed
by their own plot. Simultaneously, the author is making
hundreds of structural and grammatical choices, settling
on specific words that mark the author's
"voice" or "style." Most of these
decisions are subconscious--the worst writers rely on a
thesaurus and use words beyond their understanding rather
than go for the common language of their own lives and
hearts.
Just
as a fool "goes for it" when under the bizarre
delusion of love at first sight, or the zealot with blind
faith, the author is wire-walking without a net, building
a new reality underfoot with each step. The sum of the
choices builds that fictional world, and those who trust
their instincts will almost always find solid ground. It
doesn't matter whether the choices are the will of the
author or imposed by some aloof Muse, whether the
characters take turns in the driver's seat or whether a
"formula" provides a map.
In the
end, the choices will not only make the story, they will
be the story. A story is simply a person with a problem.
If you have a problem, you have a choice to make. If you
make a choice, things happen and other things don't
happen. While things happen, other choices become
necessary. Really, when you think about it, the wonder
isn't that there are so many plot possibilities; the
wonder is that anyone can ever type "The End."
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