What If...?
An Exercise from the new Bradbury Trio Course
Last year I was invited to attend a writing conference in Colorado where Ramona Ausubel conducted several workshops. One of the activities she had us do was to keep a “What If” question list.
In the novel writing class she teaches and in her personal practice, Ramona keeps a running WHAT IF document of anything that comes to mind when she is writing. At certain points in the process, the list is longer than the manuscript.
The list is a brainstorm of ideas that may work. It is also a place to go when you don’t know what to write next in a project.
The questions can also be the seed of an idea for a short story. Several questions mashed together can make for an interesting writing exercise to have something surprising happen.
I have been keeping a list from my reading and life this week. Some are silly, some absurd, some thoughtful.
One of my teaching philosophies is I will never ask students to do something I haven’t already done, or am willing to do myself.
Here is an excerpt of my list:
What if I wrote in a writing shed?
What if something happened in a hotel?
What if all the characters in the story had a secret?
What makes somebody tired that has nothing to do with sleep?
What if sleep solved everything?
What if everything was solved by a frappuccino and a cookie?
What if she died from a bee sting when it was stuck in her Diet Coke can?
What if you started your own WHAT IF list? What would happen to your writing?