“When you come to a fork in the road… take it.”
Who knew baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra was a writing guru?
Who knew baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra was a writing guru?
Writing a story by necessity means along the way, we confront dozens, if not hundreds of these: forks in the road.
Plot choices. Scene choices. Character choices. This is especially true in the prep process where the story is still in an amorphous state and as we brainstorm, we surface countless options. And along with those options, voices may arise inside our head:
Which ones to take? What is the right choice? What if I make a wrong choice? Which way is my story supposed to go?
Indeed, we may be overcome by a fear that by making the wrong determination, we could do some sort of irreparable harm to our story. All of which can lead to this:
The fact we have seemingly limitless options can lead to a state of indecision, even atrophy.
Two thoughts. First, why not act on this premise: Believing is seeing. As I’ve written before:
I’m reminded of an observation made by the French author Jules Renard in 1895:
“The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.”
This belief can be the foundation of everything else involved in the process of creating a story.
The story universe exists.
The characters exists.
Their personal histories exist.
Their interpersonal relationships exist.
Their intrapersonal dynamics exist.
So there is believing all of that narrative content exists.
Believing the story exists can give us a level of confidence to fend off voices of doubt and negativity. It’s already there. It’s just a matter of us finding it.
The second thing comes from Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra who famously said this:
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Logically speaking, that makes no sense. However from a writer’s perspective, Mr. Berra’s declaration can make all the sense in the world.
Ultimately there are no ‘wrong’ choices because even if you discover this path is not the ‘right’ one, you end up with a net benefit because (1) you now know not to go that way, (2) hopefully through the process you will have found a more promising path, and (3) you will have learned more about the story precisely because of the ‘erroneous’ determination.
During the prep process, a story is — naturally — in a state of flux. As you dig into it, the shape it wants to take will reveal itself — you just have to trust in that. Every story is different. Some reveal themselves quite early in the process, others take more time.
Don’t fear exploring a variety of narrative options. Embrace the idea the story already exists, eventually it will reveal its substance and shape to you. And when finding yourself at a fork in the road, don’t allow that to stymie your progress. Instead do what Yogi Berra: Writing Guru said:
Need more inspiration? Here are some reflections on two of my favorite writing mantras:
How about you? How do you handle forks in the road?