So, you have an idea for a story – maybe it’s just an idea for a set-up or an emotional payoff at the end, and you have to get the reader from your brilliant first sentence to your brilliant last sentence somehow. You need a plot.
You can’t just come up with a million million options and settings and side-characters, or you’ll end up like me the first time I led a D&D game, watching in dismay as my players went every which way BUT plot-ward.
On the other hand, if you set everything up so the reader must go in one direction, well, it’s like a maze on a cereal box – no challenge, no fun.
It’s not so much about WHAT happens as it is about the experience of the reader. They need to feel like there are branches, paths untaken. Their mind will wander down these as they read, making the whole experience more complex.
For example, in a mystery plot, every hint or clue that a particular character is the murderer creates that branching plot in the reader’s mind, though you haven’t written a word of it. (Bwa ha ha.) So, in this example, the plot is still a straight line, written as the grey path, but hints are placed to branch off into what isn’t written.
I think this is what my friend Charlie meant when he admonished me – many times – to “leave room for the reader to participate in the story.” You’re not just writing on the page – you’re also writing in the reader’s mind. Sorta.
So, when I was leading the D&D game, for example, my mistake was not moving WITH the players. I tried to fence them into the story I had written, herding them toward this dungeon I had mapped out in detail. When they got to the dungeon – it wasn’t fun. It was a linear drag.
The dungeon would have existed whether or not they set foot in it – what was important to the story? They could see the entrance, hear legends, and decide not to go there. That’s okay.
The path untravelled is still part of the story. Sometimes it’s the most interesting part.
