Facing The Future

In philosophy and mythology there are two concepts that are often considered to be synonymous - fate, and destiny both of which relate to the nature of choice. There is a subtle difference between the two, destiny deals with the concept of a final destination, or a final state that you are fated to achieve, but crucially destiny can be rejected, even if embraced it is not something that is guaranteed to happen but rather it represents an expectation that may not be met.

Fate on the other hand deals more with the concept of choices made along the way and the idea that free will is ultimately an illusion. Fate takes the idea that there are set points in your life's journey that you will pass through no matter what choices you make those moments still come to pass. Fate can best be depicted through the Greek legend of Cassandra, who was cursed with foresight able to see what would come to pass but ultimately she learns that her choices do not matter, whether she intervenes or abstains the same outcome persists regardless.

If you accept the concept of fate that doesn't necessarily invalidate the idea of free will, but rather it frames your choices such that you can still make them, but the lasting consequences of your choices are negligent, that the course of the Universe as a whole will continue regardless of your attempt to swim against the stream. Destiny in that regard is the more forgiving concept of the two, with it your life can have a purpose that you are expected to achieve but you can refuse to accept it and go in a completely different direction. This concept at least is much more congruous with the traditional concept of free will, that is, the ability to make choices that are not decided for you.

When you write fiction that follows a plot, that carries with it a coherent narrative then the concepts of fate and destiny begin to rear their heads quite quickly for you as the author. How much of the story you decide in your head before you start to write will ultimately decide how much influence these two concepts have over your writing. If you write the final chapter of your book before writing the main story for instance, then you essentially write the characters' fates - you tie yourself down to an outcome, a final fate for each of the characters that appear in that chapter. If a character is dead or alive in that chapter then when it comes to writing the actual story you have to keep the narrative coherent. How apparent that becomes to the reader can play a large part in their assessment of how predictable the narrative is.

This issue is one reason why many people do not like the idea of prequels in any form, whether the story is told through books, games, or movies, or any other medium, if you already know who lives and who dies and key events in their future then you know quite a bit about what is and isn't possible within the narrative. If you know the main character appears in sequels then you know they don't die, and there is no existential threat to the character as a reader. The same problem influences the story you tell as a writer. If you know how the story ends then you are limited in the lasting consequences to the actions of the characters.

There are two ways to overcome this issue, the first is to treat the ending you create as destiny rather than fate, to have it serve as the direction of the narrative but to permit it to deviate and go in a completely different direction if the story finds its way there organically, this will probably mean the chapter you wrote will need to be rewritten or scrapped. The other option is to abandon the idea of knowing how the story ends before you start writing. Personally this option is the one that I choose when I write. In my planning phase I create a rough guide to events I want to incorporate into the story, and a general direction I want the story to go in, but I do not determine the finer details of any of these events until the narrative reaches that point so nothing is decided ahead of time.

This approach does have one other key benefit for me personally, it forces me to consider whether I think the path of the narrative can handle such a sharp turn when it occurs. If you do not decide ahead of time how something is possible then you are forced to ask yourself how it could actually happen when the moment finally presents itself. What I find useful about this approach is that it forces you to follow the characters as they develop and consider in the moment what they are capable of and what they have achieved. When you take that idea and apply it to life itself you find a similar situation arises. If you took the world as it is today and the ramifications of the pandemic that we are dealing with as a race, there are choices and behaviours that people make and engage in every day that the same people 10 or 20 years ago would not have fathomed. If you had asked me to wear a mask in public 20 years ago I would have looked at you as if you had 2 heads, but today that's just another part of life.

I will leave you with an excerpt from a short story I started writing about four years ago but never published, it was a story I felt I needed more life experience before I could tell and have it be realistic. This excerpt turned out to be quite prescient for me which is why it lingers now in my mind. This year has been rough but I think about this passage a lot. Whatever is to come, I think in truth we can't see the future because we're not ready, but we will be when the time comes. Normal posts will resume in the New Year, for now, Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, Happy Holidays if you don't.

"If truth in truth will let itself be known, perhaps in wisdom the path is unknown, an end to be met by a journey so rough, that the thought alone is more than enough, if what is to come cannot be shared, then perhaps that’s because we would be scared. If fear is rational in times of woe, and this is a time of this we know, then fear in this moment can be justified, if we fend it off with hope inside. A path unfurls even now at our feet, the strength to walk is what we need, as mountains rise high above land and sea, our paths cross again between you and me."

Update (4th January): As of midnight tonight the UK is going back into a national lockdown due to Covid-19 and to be quite honest I don't have the mental dexterity to maintain creative output on top of everything else so unfortunately this blog won't be updated for a while.  Please stay safe, wear a mask, and wash your hands!