20 Ways to Change Your Story
15. Choose Your Own Adventure and Be Flexible
My daughter used to love those Choose Your Own Adventure books when she was little.
Every few pages, the protagonist faces a choice point and the reader gets to choose what the protagonist does next. That choice sends the story off in one of several possible directions, by sending the reader to a specific next page. After a few more pages, a new choice point is reached, and the reader again shapes the direction the story will take by choosing for the protagonist.
Each book has multiple possible endings, at least some of which may be reached through multiple paths. The ending you reach depends on the choices you make along the way.
What a brilliant story structure and clever mirror of the way life works!
Here’s how I think it relates to the idea of story changing.
On page one, you, the protagonist, decide to change your story. You set a new intention or goal, or decide to change something about yourself or your beliefs. You take a few steps in a new direction.
Then on page four, life throws something unexpected at you and you’re faced with choices. Some choices will take you deeper into your new story, and some will keep you locked in the old story. You don’t always know which choice is the best one, but you make a choice and you keep on moving.
The key is to keep your focus on the WHAT (the desired ending) while remaining super flexible about the HOW (which pages of the book will get you there).
If you get locked into which specific pages you need to land on to get to the ending you want, you might miss meeting a great supportive character or enjoying an exciting subplot.
If you can stay flexible about how the pages of the story unfold, while making resourceful choices along the way, you can enjoy the journey of choosing your own adventure and reach your happily ever after.
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This is the 16th post in a 21-post series sparked by Chapter 9 of Fallen, The Adventures of a Deep Water Leaf, in which Lizard suggests that Alora change her story.
#20WaysIn20Days, #ChangeYourStory, #Fallen