WRITING ASSIGNMENT #45

For today, sketch a brief autobiography -- written in the second person -- detailing as many or as few years as you'd like.

Isolate your most influential decisions in your narrative and reimagine the story, using these choices as pivot points in a choose-your-own-adventure story.

We imagine that you are all familiar with the genre, but just in case:

At decisive moments within your narrative, the reader will be given two or more optional paths to follow. If they choose Option 1, they turn to page X. If they choose Option 2 (or 3, 4, whatever), they turn to page Y. The pages will dole out the alternate consequences of each respective choice and continue the narrative along a new, unique route.

An example:

You thank Jeremy for listening after you describe how awful and exhausting it was having to commit your sister Meredith and first-cousin Becky on the same day to two institutions fifteen miles apart. You tell him that you love him a totally hetero way. He pauses and looks down. In this moment, you dwell in the profound, quiet comfort of being understood. No more words are necessary. You put your cigarette out in Mrs. Cofield's long-dead potted plant and resettle into your fraying lawn chair. Jeremy turns to you and, in what seems like mere fractions of a second, leans in to kiss you.

In response, you.....

1) ....reluctantly accept a brief kiss with no tongue and terminate the friendship slowly over the next two weeks. Page 345.
2) ...passionately explore the kiss, and fall into the sublime tailspin of an intense affair. Page 190.
3) ...refuse the gesture outright and utter a litany of homophobic slurs. Page 64.
4) ...start coughing and excuse yourself to the bathroom. Page 32.
5) ...politely inform him that he must have misunderstood and that you don't share his feelings, but, even so, you're still BFFs. Page 2

..... and then you write corresponding results for each of the choices.

Sounds fun, right?!

While we don't consider ourselves qualified to tell you how to write, we will suggest that imagining options far outside of your perceived comfort zone might yield the best results.

Send your multitude of potential lives to loganliterary@gmail.com