Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Seeking Inspiration: The 'What If' Theory

There are countless ways for writers to find inspiration for a new story. My usual problem is fighting such distractions! It never fails; I get a great idea that gets me all excited while I’m deep in my current project. When this happens, I always write down the idea and sometimes a quick outline. You never want to lose an idea but you don’t want to get bogged down by them either. But what if you’re looking for inspiration? I always use the ‘what if’ theory.
The ‘what if’ theory is just what it implies.

What if vampires were real?
What if the people next door were werewolves?
What if aliens were already on Earth?
What if that civilization never died out?

And we could play this game all day. This is how I came up with the idea for my current project. And yes I’m going to continue to mysterious and vague in regards to it! After you have your ‘what if’ phrase then start asking other questions. Soon you’ll have a story premise and the plot will start to take shape.
Does anyone else use the ‘what if’ theory when seeking story inspiration? Is that how you came up with your current WIP? This always works for me. Now if I could just stop thinking of all the intriguing what if scenarios and finish my current projects!

Happy Writing Y’all!

1 comment:

  1. Hey girl, I like playing What If sometimes while driving but it has yet to actually inspire one of my story ideas I have drafted -- but I have come up with some interesting ideas that I may explore one day :-)

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