As a written work grows in length, it becomes harder to keep the story unified under a few overarching ideas. (Especially for part-time writers like me who aren’t engaged with their stories for several hours each day). And it’s even more difficult in a choose-your-adventure novel like The Friar’s Lantern, which has several different story threads, each one with its own characters, plot and underlying agenda. I created the following post-it note o help remind me of one of those big ideas. And for the past few years, I had copies of this note on my laptop, work computer and writing folder.
These words didn’t make it into the novel verbatim. Yet the ideas about free will, determinism and how humans make choices written on this note helped me structure the novel and the plot lines and arguments contained therein. They helped keep the novel a single cohesive work instead of a mere collection of diverging stories.
Right now, I’m starting to sketch the characters and plots for my next novel. I’ve come up with a few big ideas for that work, which I’ll share as I get farther along.