Tuesday Toolbox - What If?

Whether it’s for a brand new story or a manuscript that’s in need of serious revisions, I turn to brainstorming. My go-to brainstorming technique is asking myself the same question over and over.

WHAT IF?

What if an uptight marriage therapist is told on live TV that he has a child from a one-night stand?

What if the heroine, who loves and cares for this child, had followed his theories and divorced because of it?

What if they are stranded together and are forced to depend on each other?

And so the premise of Mr. Forever was born.

“What if” is the process by which I make my characters come alive.  “What if” is how I solve my plot problems…or create new ones. “What if” frees my brain to think of far-fetched possibilities. After all, I’m not setting anything in stone. I’m just suggesting “what if.”

I begin these “what if" scenarios in my head. They often come to me in the shower, on long walks, and while driving. Eventually, I sit with a pen and paper and channel these half sentences and random musings onto the page. From there, “what if” invariably leads me to a story that I can share with my readers.