Include some tough choices (and maybe even multiple possible endings)
We are faced with making many choices every day. Some decisions might seem unimportant while others might seem very important.
- Can you think of some big and little decisions that you make every day?
Your character's choices have consequences that impact the plot of your story
Whether big or small, all choices lead to consequences. Consequences mean that our actions impact other people, things, and events. Sometimes consequences can seem small but may cause big changes later or lead to something happening that we never intended.
When you are writing your story and deciding what your character will do, you may want to think about the following questions:
- Who will be impacted by this action/decision?
- What possible results, both good and bad, will we see from this decision?
- How will others view the consequences of this decision differently, especially compared to my character’s view of the results?
Choices sometimes have unintended consequences
Some obstacles are caused or made worse by actions that your character takes. In this case it can be helpful to think about how a small event can cause unintended problems. For example, in my story, my character might want hug their friend who is feeling sad, but this action may risk getting their friend sick which is unintentional (didn’t mean for this to happen).
- Have you ever made a choice that had unintended consequences?
In an interactive story where the reader can make different choices to control where the story goes, it can be helpful to think about not only happy endings but also not-so-happy endings that might result from poor decisions or bad luck.
- What are some choices your character might make that would lead to a happy ending?
- What choices might lead to unintended consequences and a not-so-happy ending?
Some events are outside our control
Sometimes people can do all of the right things or all of the wrong things and it might not seem to matter or the consequences won't seem to make sense.
If you are crafting a story with multiple possible endings, you can build some of this uncertainty or randomness into your story. Consider writing pathways in your story where the reader doesn't get to choose, but instead, the story is decided by pure chance.
This can be done with a number cube. If the reader roles a 1, 2, or 3, the story leads down one pathway and if the reader roles a 4, 5, or 6, the story leads down a different pathway.
- Can you think of a story where something happens to a character, not because of any choice they make, but because of pure chance?
- What type of uncertainty or chance might your character encounter in your story?