Tale spinning

What if? That question is one of the most effective tools in the fiction writer’s tool kit. What if the South had won the Civil War? The implications would thunder through the rest of time. Would slavery have disappeared—and be replaced by what? Would the South have stayed out of World War I, handing victory to the Kaiser?

Or what if you and your spouse learn, after raising a happy brood of children, that the two of you are siblings who’d been separated at birth? My writers’ group hated that idea—ugh, disgusting, vile. But oh, the spins your tale could take! Divorce? Sure, then what? “Kids, we have something to tell you”?

If a FedEx driver shows up at your door with a package containing your best friend’s ashes, you might get a comic romp like When Pigs Fly (which was my what-if take), or the dark and brooding mystery I’d initially imagined.

What if two strangers exchange glances and smiles on a bus and then try to find each other online? This happened to a friend of my son. Using very little information, the guy and the gal both tried to find each other on Craig’s List and succeeded in a classic “meet cute” featured in The Boston Globe. But what if one of them were hiding a disturbing past—or present?

Everything in our lives has a ripple effect, an infinite series of consequences and what-ifs. If you’re looking for story ideas, you could start with your own life, however boring you may find it, and imagine a detail that’s different. Certainly having the phone or doorbell ring is a great departure point. Who’s calling? What do they want? What if you want them to go away, but they won’t?

Take a blank piece of paper and write an idea—just a word or two—in the middle.  Around the idea, write possibilities  that might stem from it. And what does each of those possibilities suggest? And so on. You may quickly find the branch that you want to pursue, and now you have the germ of a story. New ideas may sprout along the way, but if you ever get stuck, ask yourself “What if___?” and fill in the blank.

And what if you stopped by my blog? It may not change your life, but then you'll never know...