What Happens Next?
by Bob Haslam

Some of the best advice I ever received on writing fiction came from Ken Anderson, filmmaker and fiction writer extraordinaire. I was new at writing and attended my first writers conference at Wheaton College. When I looked over the brochure of workshops, the one on writing fiction caught my eye. I had visited Anderson's recording studios in Winona Lake, Indiana, and knew he was highly creative. I chose his workshop right away.

When I walked into Anderson's workshop, I expected to hear from him pretty much what I had always been taught about writing fiction. What I learned from him forever changed my concept of creating a story.

I had the idea from concepts I had been taught in high school and college that before writing a fictional story, I should create my characters with all their characterizations and appearances well defined. With the main protagonist and antagonist totally prescribed, the plot came next-a detailed outline of the story from beginning to end.

My teachers required an outline. They insisted on our turning in the outline for their perusal and comments before they would give their go ahead for us to write. When they handed us back our outlines with their own ideas added to ours, only then should we begin to write.

Anderson blew that all apart. Yes, have characters well in mind. Yes, have a plot well in mind. Then came the big surprise. This expert fiction writer startled everyone in the workshop by saying, "The key to great fiction writing it to keep asking the question, 'What happens next?'"

This opened an entirely new vista for us plebes who desired to create characters and stories. How refreshing it was to be freed from the confinement of unchangeable character descriptions and inflexible plot outlines.

The what-happens-next? concept frees writers to allow their characters to surprise them—just as our friends and family do in real life. When our characters clash or fall in love or experience an adventure, we allow them to respond differently than they have before. We allow them to show different emotions, varying ways of thinking, changes in how they react to stimuli.

In fictional pieces I've written, I've begun with a well-thought-out description of my character—what he looks like, acts like, his preferences, etc. Yet, as my character interacts with other individuals and encounters situations I have not foreseen in my original ideas about the plot, he delights me by turning the tables on me. This makes my writing of fiction all the more enjoyable. It's a work in progress that's filled with twists and turns I have not foreseen.

It's something like this. I'm watching the story on the screen of my imagination. I create the opening scene, then start down a prescribed path. But as I'm watching the scenes on the screen, things happen I hadn't thought of or planned for earlier. To borrow a phrase from the Christmas carol Jingle Bells, "Oh what fun it is..."

Yes, it's possible for me to stop the process and make things happen according to my initial format. But that usually spoils the fun, both for me and for my readers. By being flexible and permissive with my characters and with my plot, I discover new things about those people I've created in my imagination. They control me as much as I control them.

As a Christian writer, I have the feeling that the Holy Spirit has something to do with the direction and flow of my writing. I always invite the Spirit to guide me when I write, and some of the unexpected developments that take place may be attributed to divine guidance of my mind and creative imagination. Something the Spirit directs me to add to the story may be for the benefit of a reader I don't know about, but the Spirit does.

Characters can change from being open and accepting to becoming skeptical and judgmental, or from being friendly to being abrasive. They may come up against problems and resolve them creatively or agonize endlessly. Their tastes may change in clothing, food, even the type of people they relate to. Stereotyping a character may preclude such changes. Asking"what happens next?" is more like life as we live it.

The plot thickens. Things happen we didn't have in mind at the outset. In truth, we are not in total control of our characters or their environment.

Inflexible plots are often the most predictable ones. They continue without taking into account surprises and changes, both internally and externally. Staying on the prescribed path misses the fun and excitement of getting off course and either coming back to the path or discovering a new one.

But what about the ending? Is that up for grabs, too? It is if you ask from beginning to end, "What happens next?"

In fact, if you don't determine the outcome until you know the whole story yourself, your readers won't be able to come to a conclusion before you do. Thus, you'll achieve that coveted surprise ending.