Every story has the same path. The beginning, the middle, the end. Each has a part and a step. Pieces that need to happen along the plot to make it move. To give it a heartbeat. Make it feel real. The more real it feels, the more people believe, and then the story becomes real. A living thing. The new reality around you.
Readers see the final version of that story. The one that gets to the printing press. They don't see the different versions. The rough drafts. The edits. That's the magic behind the scenes to make a story real. But those drafts--those versions--are just as real as the final one. Parts of them live on in that perfected work of art while the rest get thrown aside.
How many versions of "Return" had I written before I stopped? How many versions went by before I realized that "Initiation" had to happen first? Did I ever go back and try to change "Departure" to make it work? I can't remember. Memory is fluid in the Dark Place.
Maybe there was some version of "Return" that had a revised edition of "Departure." A rewrite, a remaster, something added to make the future events make sense. Maybe a longing to put something in to help me for "Initiation" and "Return."
The story would have to stay the same in so many parts. Delicate, hard work. Subtle things that would change the path of the over arcing narrative, but not the story of "Departure." I would still have to end up in the Dark Place. Alice would have to be safe. The same people would have to have the same fate. Just with something unordinary added.
📜— forward, by alan wake.