My Fork in a Writer's Road

One thing that excites me about writing fiction is the fork in the road. I was a fan of Choose Your Own Adventure books growing up, and it is so true in life how one decision can affect your whole outcome.

The most recent senior fiction I finished was about a trip to a farmer's market. I came across a number of forks in the road on that little journey. They ranged from problems and solutions, the decision to add a character or not, or just how to finish the story altogether.

The fork in a writer's road can start from the beginning. What aspires an author to choose a topic, pick a character, and determine which genre they want it to develop into. I think about Susanna Carr (http://www.susannacarr.com/), a romance writer who has written for Harlequin Presents and Harlequin Blaze. While both are published under the same company, the paths the stories require go in different directions. The path of the heroine can go from bad to worse, hot to steamy, or however the author chooses to take the adventure. It's the author's discretion, the author's “fantasy”, the author's adventure.

Authors can find their inspiration at the fork of the road at any point from brainstorming to drafting. Even the editor can reveal a new path that takes everything in a new direction. Sometimes these new adventures enhance the story, creates a tension that piques the reader's interest more, or make it possible to spin off into something new and fresh for the next story in the horizon.

Right now as I am recharging my creative juices for my next writing adventure, I look at my map of ideas and wonder what journey sounds exciting to write about and read.

The next Jamie Stonebridge senior fiction story will be about a good day for a walk in the summer. The paths for that story are numerous. Sometimes I go back to my days of “romance” and take a “what if” approach. You know, “what if she said yes (or no)?” or “how would life be different if she picked the nice guy over the bad boy?”. It's just like a fractured fairy tale where there isn't always a happy ending or the point of view tells another version of a familiar story.

Now I must hurry and write

the tangent forming in my head,

because the new adventure awaits

for what characters will do instead.