I've really been enjoying my first foray into 

interactive fiction

by using the scripting language Ink open sourced by 

Inkle

. 

What I love most about it is how the 

form factor

guides you into embracing 

tight scopes

. Instead of trying to come up with the perfect way to write a scene -- let's say about someone waking up -- the interactive fiction route beckons you to write many parallel scenarios. None of them have to be perfect. Just write something to explore. 

Then you link up these hypotheticals and it turns out you get a pretty good story after all! 

I remember when I introduced my 

dad

to this he was excited for this very reason. He no longer had to shoulder the burden of coming up with The Scene instead you can just brainstorm a bunch of possible happenings and then paint a mural of a scene. When he said this last week I joked and said that this was in fact what the great writers do. They are unlike us and they never needed this form factor to pull it off.

I think that's what makes a good writer a good writer. You're never reading what they wrote. What you're reading is just one possible path along everything they did write. They just happened to curate this narrow path for you.