Tag: Imagination

What do you think about when you’re standing at the top of a mountain? What’s going through your mind? Is your imagination poking at your brain? Is fear setting in? There weren’t any side rails along the road on the way up, so you’re wondering how you’re going to get back down without going over the edge. Getting up there was easy. What if you get stuck on the way down (if you climbed up)? Questions questions.

Story ideas start with questions. Usually they’re ‘what if’ questions, but that doesn’t mean they have to be (see above questions for examples). I like the ‘what if’ questions only because that’s what my brain goes to automatically. Below are some ‘what if’ questions you can steal. Remember, one what if question can create more than one story.

• What if you were eating in a Chinese restaurant and received a fortune cookie made gold?
• What if someone knocked at your front door? You answer it and it’s your late grandfather. You give him a hug and immediately that takes you back in time to his era.
• What if you’re walking to the elevator in the busy office building you work in, and you suddenly realize you’re alone. You’re the only one in the whole building.
• What if you stumble upon your parents who aren’t your parents but they look like them?
• What if the spiritual realm became visible only to you?
• What if a one hundred dollar bill was found stuck in your second story bedroom window and you know it’s not yours?
• What if you bit into a cookie and found a ring inside with an inscription?