By Beaver

Write a “choose your own adventure”-style story. That is, start writing your story, but when you get to a point where your main character has to make a decision, first continue the story with the character making one choice (up to the point where another decision has to be made), then go back to the fork in the road and write the story with the character making a different choice.

Pick at least three points in your story where it could go in two or more directions and write each of the versions.

A simple version of this exercise would go something like this, and result in eight different versions of the story:

• Original story ? at the first fork, choose A or B.
  • A story ? at the second fork, choose C or D.
    • C story ? at the third fork, choose G or H.
      • G story ? continue to the end.
      • H story ? continue to the end.
    • D story ? at the third fork, choose I or J.
      • I story ? continue to the end.
      • J story ? continue to the end.
  • B story ? at the second fork, choose E or F.
    • E story ? at the third fork, choose K or L.
      • K story ? continue to the end.
      • L story ? continue to the end.
    • F story ? at the third fork, choose M or N.
      • M story ? continue to the end.
      • N story ? continue to the end.

Of course, stories can get more complicated than this, with more options and storylines backtracking and crisscrossing on each other. Play around and have fun with it.

While a choose-your-own-adventure story can be meant to be read as-is, this is also a good exercise for exploring your options when working through the plot of a longer story or novel.

It’s also a great way to complete a challenge like NaNoWriMo if you “run out of story” before reaching your word goal. Go back through your story and look for points where it could have gone in a different direction and write those versions. You might find you like one of the alternate stories better than the original.