Walk down any street, read any headline or listen to any
conversation and you will find plenty of opportunities to ask, “what if?”
Your question, along with the answer, could be funny,
tragic, dramatic, romantic or any other theme you choose. You can be as
outrageous as you want because as you develop your theme even the most unlikely
occurrence can make for a good story.
Consider these:
What if an alien landed in your back garden? Not a new idea
but maybe you could develop a new slant on this. Is this a funny story about
how you try to communicate with the aliens and keep them hidden as they accompany
you throughout your day? Maybe this is about trust; you try to help the aliens
but they have a plot to destroy your town. When you discover this you realise
you have inadvertently helped them with their attempts and now you have to
defeat them.
What if a woman overhears a conversation where another woman
talks about her upcoming wedding? This could be a thriller with the groom
already being married to the first woman. What does she do? Is this about
revenge. Maybe the second woman is making up the whole story. This could be a
short story where the first woman is in her seventies and recalls her wedding
and how her husband died shortly afterwards. Perhaps the first woman is the
natural mother of the woman getting married but she gave her up for adoption as
a baby.
What if electricity supplies are lost for two weeks? You
decide if this is one house, an entire city or even the world. What impact
would this have? Could there be a romance here as everyone pulls together?
Maybe there will be crime, even murder, as people try to get hold of resources
that have become limited (no freezers, no fridges, limited cooking facilities, limited
heating). This could form part of the plot for a larger story, for example, an
organisation could be aiming to control a nation by controlling its essential resources
and services such as electricity, water, collection of waste etc.
What if you came home and your whole house had been
decorated? A nice surprise? A sign of dementia? Maybe someone is trying to
convince you that you have a mental health condition.
What if you look in the mirror and the reflection isn’t you?
You can ask “what if?” continuously as you develop your
scene or story. What if you find treasure in a cave by the beach? What if the
tide comes in and you are trapped? What if you decide to dive to escape
(research how long someone can hold their breath)? What if you misjudge the
exit, squeeze through an opening, and end up in another cave where you find a
skeleton? What if the water is still rising? You might decide this would make a
great climax for a story and work backwards to decide why you are in the cave
in the first place.
Exercise
Asking “what if?” is a really useful way of coming up with
story ideas and developing your plot. Keep a notebook and write at least ten “what
ifs?” each day. At the end of a week select one (or more) and write at least
three possible story ideas. Select one of these story ideas and write a brief outline
for a novel, short story or a piece of non-fiction. Remember your question and
answer could be the main story or be one part of your story. Over time you will
have plenty of ideas that you can use in your writing.
Happy writing.
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