Reader Friday-The “What If?” Zone

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(Title of today’s post courtesy of my husband…a man of few words.)   🙂

Familiar territory, right? I’m betting the farm (if I had one) that all of us have played the “What If?” game with ourselves, and possibly with others. Which brings up a cool idea. “What If” a group of writers got together and designed a game just for folks like us who spend their days dreaming up ways to get in trouble . . . ahem . . . I mean, to get our characters in trouble. Wouldn’t that be fun?

But I digress.

The subject today is a riff off of a recent Randy Ingermanson article. The point of his post was the “What If?” question, but with a good, wrenching twist to it.

He states: “Most novels use a familiar ‘what if?’ question that has been asked and answered many times before. But the really ground-breaking novels ask a ‘what if?’ question that is new.”

He goes on to say that not all “what if?” questions have to be new and shiny, but to up our author game we should “Ask The Question Nobody Is Asking”. Intriguing, yes?

 

He mentions the Wright Brothers, who, back in 1903 asked the one no one else was asking. How do we get a machine to fly that’s heavier than air? And away they went, soaring into the history books!

 

I thought of one as I was writing this post: What if I walked into my house and it wasn’t mine?

So let’s play.

TKZers, will you brainstorm over your coffee, tea, or water this morning and think up a “what if” question that maybe hasn’t been asked yet? And if you’ve already asked that unasked-as-yet question and made a story out of it, that’s okay too.

Do tell…

This entry was posted in #ReaderFriday, Writing and tagged by Deb Gorman. Bookmark the permalink.

About Deb Gorman

Deb Gorman is an author, blogger, and speaker who escaped from a 9-5 job in the medical field to pursue what she really loves—words, words, and more words. A lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, she writes fiction and non-fiction in between long walks through orchard country with her husband, Alan, and playing with their German Shepherd, Hoka. You can catch up with Deb on her website, debggorman.com, and email her at debster145@gmail.com

24 thoughts on “Reader Friday-The “What If?” Zone”

  1. What if you came to in a coffin with total amnesia?

    I’m up to my elbows answering that in the editing stage of my final draft.

  2. Or, What if you walked into your house and someone else was living there, a complete stranger??

    • Yeah, that’s a good one, Fran.

      I wonder if I could get a cup of coffee out of the deal while they explain to me what’s going on…

      Thanks for playing this morning!

  3. Here’s a story idea that came to me a few weeks ago, but I don’t know what to do with it yet.

    What if rebels tried to overthrow the empire, but instead of a hero for their leader they were stuck with the high school queen bee.

    • Good Friday morning, AZAlie.

      Ya know, this sounds eerily familiar to me.

      I’m sure you’ll come up with an idea for it…maybe in about 3 months? 🙂

      Thanks for dropping by, and have a great weekend!

  4. I have thought about this question from time to time. It is a personal one for me. In July 1979 my best friend was murdered. He was 16 and a chess master. I sometimes wonder about what “the unfulfilled great man.” to quote his eulogy would have done now some 40 years later?

    • Wow, Alan, how poignant that must be to consider. Not that I know anything about that story, but maybe you should write it. 🙂

      You remind me that sometimes I’ve wondered what would it would be like to still have my younger brother and sister. How would our family be different if they hadn’t died back in the 80s, one at 20 and the other at 31?

      Thanks for dropping by this morning!

    • Mornin’, Elaine!

      I have to think, IMHO, it’d be better. But who knows? The same question could be considered about MLK and Bobby K. Good people gone too soon.

      Have a great weekend…

      • I have looked for stories of the RFK presidency and what that would have been like. Everything says we still would have gone/escalated in Vietnam. But what about the rest?

        Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.

        • Yeah, the ’68$ question, right?

          Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.

          Indeed!

  6. What if the First World War had been averted?

    I suspect the twentieth century would have been very different. As much of a disaster as WWI was in many ways, it also was fight by the Entente against an authoritarian foe, and victory began the end of colonialism, and resulted in numerous societal changes.

    • Hi, Dale…good question.

      And I wonder if WW2 would’ve happened, or would it have been somehow different? It’s sad that so much profit can be made off of war. One wonders if that’s the only reason they happen.

      Thanks for playing this morning!

  7. What if a science reporter plunges through a time portal to a world of Neanderthals?

    Oh, wait. I wrote and published that. But now I’m writing the screenplay. Here’s the current logline:

    When a heartbroken science reporter plunges through a time portal
    to a world of Neanderthals, he faces a crucial decision that can alter
    the course of human history.

    Would you watch that movie?

    • Absolutely I’d watch that movie, Harald! Not much for reading SciFi, but I’m a SciFi movie buff for sure.

      Be sure to let us know when it’s on the big screen.

      Thanks for plunging in this morning…

  9. This question happens to be easy, because the ‘What If’ at the heart of my mainstream trilogy (set in Hollywood and the worldwide industries of films and books) is right there, front and center, in the very beginning of the first book of the Pride’s Children: PURGATORY trilogy (very slightly edited):

    “What if the world found out that, even as his pregnant fiancée, America’s Sweetheart Bianca Doyle, lay supine in a hospital bed at the California Regional Women’s Hospital in Glendale, on complete bed-rest to forestall the premature birth of his twin daughters, Irish Megastar Andrew O’Connell, seen last March dedicating his winning statuette at the Academy Awards to Ms. Doyle, was secretly married to best-selling author K. Beth Winter, many years his senior?”

    Why would an author do this?

    Simple. Because it takes a while to get TO this point in the story – all of PURGATORY (the first book), and most of NETHERWORLD (the second) – and I was fairly sure most readers would forget this tiny 145-word prologue by the time they had read that far into the story.

    It’s a HOOK. A way to play fair with the reader. So that when the improbable premise hits, readers can’t say they weren’t warned.

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