How do you settle on just one plot when a bunch of variations sound good?

My usual writing process is this: I come up with a cool scenario ➡️ "hmm I wonder how these characters ended up here?" ➡️ character creation ➡️ plot creation. Usually, knowing the characters is what helps me craft my plot. But right now, I'm stuck on this last step. I have a pivotal scene in mind, I know my characters, I know the central trope/niche I'll use for marketing, but there are so many ways for these characters to have a HEA! And all of them sound fun to write and read!

I've narrowed it down to three main plots but I can't pick one. This is cutting into my writing progress - I keep writing scenes that don't fit together.

Have you ever dealt with something like this? Any tips on how to choose just one plot line, or figure out what plot will serve the story/characters best?

(I hope this question makes sense; I can give examples if that would be helpful! TIA!)

Posted Sep 3, 2025, 6:25 PM UTC

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