Hatrack River Writers Workshop: What If...

This is topic What If... in forum Writing Class at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by PB&Jenny (Member # 9200) on :

I often use the 'What If' method of writing stories. It's a situation approach to scene writing that gets my creative juices flowing.

I sometimes have to start with ridiculous things to get me going, like - what if ants had machine guns? I guess then, birds wouldn't mess with them.

What if we all walked on the bottom of clouds and looked up to see the earth?

What if there were only pockets of breathable air on the planet and we were all forced to live in only those areas?

Things like that make me go hmmm....

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

I use that pockets of breathable are in many of the story ideas. Either only the low lands are breathable, or the highlands are breathable.
70% of my story ideas are what if type stories.

Posted by PB&Jenny (Member # 9200) on :

Wow, cool. And here I thought I was insane.

Posted by EVOC (Member # 9381) on :

I have a writer's notebook I have filled with What if ideas. Something comes to mind at work and I get it down in my notebook.

Which leads me to the biggest what if there is:

What if I didn't have my writer's notebook?

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

What if I were a figment of My own Imagination?

What if I were the center of the universe and when I turn, twist, fall over, leap, the whole universe moves rather than I do? How would it be detected and proved scientifically?

Here is a story idea I have in my compost pile that I have not quite worked out the exact handle on,
What if the universe was saw dust? We somehow work out that atoms are sawdust and so are the micro partcles..
The Lord was a carpenter, so it would be logical......

A story idea I did a couple years ago is based on the fact that cats always land on their feet and bread always falls butter side down. Strap bread to the back of the cat and you now have a levetation system for mass transit trains....

The fun part is making them logical and reasonable.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

quote:
What if I were a figment of My own Imagination?

Been done...Theodore Sturgeon, I forget the title.

And cats do not land on their feet every time. Don't try that experiment at home.

Posted by Grayson Morris (Member # 9285) on :

Nor does bread always land butter side up. Mythbusters torpedoed that one.

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

With a lot of speculative fiction, You set the rules and then just have to be logical within them.

A what if story could be based on what if the rules of the universe were changed just slight enough for this concept to be real. Anything beyond that just follows the rule change.

What if I were a space alien trying to take over the world through the guidance of authors in their stories.......

Posted by Reziac (Member # 9345) on :

If we still persist in writing utter crap, does that torpedo your dastardly plan for world domination?

Posted by Tiergan (Member # 7852) on :

Myth Busters is awesome.

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

quote:

If we still persist in writing utter crap, does that torpedo your dastardly plan for world domination?

Actually, that could support his plan.

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

One book I liked very much was a what if, that changed a law of physics. Rats can't think how to spell it but the law that causes everything to wear out or run down.

In this case it did the opposite. So rich people hired people to wear their clothes because after a while the shirt or pair of pants would be fancier with brighter colors.

But the whole what if idea can be fun. And can help break a drought on new ideas, I hear.

[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited February 02, 2011).]

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

I believe that the law of physics you are referring to is known as the "law of entropy" and the book is probably David Brin's THE PRACTICE EFFECT, based on the idea that "practice makes perfect."

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

That's it. It's been so long that I had forgotten the title and author, not to mention I haven't seen the book for quite a while. But now that you mentioned them I remembered.

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

Actually, real science advancement comes from science fiction, people seeing if that technology might actually be created. Star Trek technology is one example where very little has not been already invented.

by guiding authors to write crap, rather than real science fiction, I subvert your society, keep you from gaining enough power to stop me.
The bad thing is that my attempts are leaking into my own society and is bringing them down too......

Posted by Smiley (Member # 9379) on :

All your base are belong to us.

Posted by Reziac (Member # 9345) on :

quote:
by guiding authors to write crap, rather than real science fiction, I subvert your society, keep you from gaining enough power to stop me.
The bad thing is that my attempts are leaking into my own society and is bringing them down too......

Sounds like the Wishing Game, in which wishes are granted in the worst possible way:

Some egomaniac, such as myself, says:

I wish I were the best writer in the world.

The next person might come back with something like:

Granted. Unfortunately everyone else is illiterate, so they'll never read your deathless prose.

Then they make a related wish of their own.

I'm thinking this process could be used as a Plot Extender.

[This message has been edited by Reziac (edited February 23, 2011).]

Posted by gyanavani (Member # 9414) on :

What if men could get pregnant?

Many years ago when Dubya was the president and he kept ranting about how abortion was evil, I thought what would happen if George woke up one morning and found himself pregnant? It takes him a whole trimester to find out what is wrong with him: why does he feel sick so often, why does he want to cry for no reason whatsoever and why does he after he sits down to a delightful meal decide that nothing tickles his fancy and that he must run over to the greasiest all night (what are those places called? haven't been in the us for over 5 years now) and eat everything that he has always maintained that he hates? So when the first shock of knowledge has subsided he then finds out that he cannot terminate the pregnancy because it is unsafe and any way he cannot terminate the pregnancy because he doesn't believe in it. I had great fun writing a scene where the russian president was visiting and George had to run to the loo every so often. And of course the russian prez is angry and the world is close to a third world war and to avert it our georgie reveals his secret in a broadcast simulcast in many countries. So then the women's organisations descend ... and I never completed the story.

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

Besides the fact that I don't remember him ranting all that much, that idea has been done.

Back in the seventies there was a book out where the bad guy made a weapon that made males pregnant. He figured he could use it against any army that attacked him and all the macho soldiers-there were mainly male soldiers at that time- would be so mortified that they were pregnant that they wouldn't be able to fight. The hero got hit by the weapon at the end. He decided to have and raise the baby but in-between that book and the next he completely changed his mind.

And I believe they have been other stories where guys got pregnant. Oh yes; in one a prostitute made every guy she had sex with pregnant, turned out she was probably an alien but she burned herself up before anyone could be sure. Seems like someone famous did that story but I can't recall who.

Of course none of these guys were the President but hey we can do our own political stories if we want. I got one in mind about the man made drought here in Central Calif. which is all I will say about that here.

[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited February 26, 2011).]

Posted by Wordcaster (Member # 9183) on :

I'm not a fan of stories that are aimed at belittling real people, but I love stories that get into ethical dilemmas. I think that is where OSC has succeeded. I think it was the second Ender novel (Speaker for the Dead?) that had the piggies in it. It was an odd culture and species, but it dealt with a intriguing dilemma for Ender.

Here's my "what if":

What if the Earth's core began to dematerialize and the gravitational force gradually decreased?

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

quote:

What if the Earth's core began to dematerialize and the gravitational force gradually decreased?

I think that has been done...in a movie at least, but that doesn't mean you can't do your own story.

Posted by Smiley (Member # 9379) on :

LDW2 wrote:

quote:
And I believe they have been other stories where guys got pregnant... Seems like someone famous did that story but I can't recall who.

Wasn't that the movie 'Twins' with Danny DeVito and the Governator?

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

I recently watched a rented movie full of recognizable sci-fi actors about a man who is impregnated by an alien organism that fell to Earth. After giving birth to a humanoid child, the man fights the military, the media, and the American legal system to save his "son". The movie is called Inalienable, and I almost couldn't fathom it's awfulness, unfortunately contrasted by its potential. What if someone rewrote that story with natural-sounding dialogue, believable supporting characters, smooth transitions, and stronger conflicts between personal morality, reproductive science, governmental responsibility, and the processes of law?

Or, what if a public collection of books containing bits of soul that were inadvertently donated by fervent readers develops into a mobile organism that tries to save its readers from literature-hating terrorists?

What if a medieval reenactor from our time is transported to a future in which no one studies history?

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

What-if concepts are seeds. From the seeds grow story ideas that contain conflict and potential solutions. After the stories are written, the initial story ideas that were formed from imaginings of "What If..." can be reconsidered as loglines. So, what-if concepts are specifically like nuts--their husks can be used to create a new product after the plant seeds have grown.

If that makes any sense. I'm too tired to self-evaluate.

What if wind was the accumulation of the ghosts of earth spirits, who are invisible beings whispering spells to seeds and microorganisms, orchestrating life as we know it?

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

Smiley No, that wasn't it.

aspirit your idea of the book soul could work even though I think it should either be humorous or cyperpunk.

The one about the reenactor going into the future would work also depending on how it is done.

[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited March 17, 2011).]

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

There isn't an idea that won't work
The only question is,
How good are you?

There was a series of news stories about a man who got pregnant. It turned out to be a woman who did not have the complete sex change.

on the reenactor thing, the most popular is where they end up in the period they are playing. Going into the future where no one studies history would be interesting, as the character would be able to teach the reenacting time and their own time.

bits of soul in books is pretty good. Within the world my Waxy stories are written, writers get a bit of power from each person who reads and enjoys the story. It gives them power to do other kinds of magic.

Absolutely any idea can be used, no matter how outlandish or impossible. It all comes down to how one does it.

Posted by Josephine Kait (Member # 8157) on :

What if we all once had wings, and we've only forgotten how to fly.

What if a man really lived in two worlds at once. When he slept in one he was awake in the other.

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

Josephine you're first idea sounds interesting. But your second has been done.

Actually modifications of the first have been done...The Ringworld books. By Larry Niven I think. I have only read the first but it was great. The humans didn't fly but they had once been something more.

But you could still go with both ideas if you decided to.

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

Both of Josephine's concepts have been done, but that doesn't mean they are done. Last year, I read a story in Analog (I think) about an alien race that takes the form of pet dogs but is foiled in its primary goal by the choice of forms. I disliked the story because it was more predictable and less emotional than Orson Scott Card's and Jay A. Parry's "In the Doghouse", originally published in a 1978 copy of Analog. However, an editor must have liked the more recent use of the concept. The recent piece and "In the Doghouse" were also, on the whole, completely different stories.

LD might know how to write cyberpunk about a book monster, while I would need to write it as surrealist fantasy. We would probably choose different character personalities and writing styles, as well. The same concept will not lead to the same story, so it's impractical to judge a what-if for everyone.

*Edited to shoo away a wayward "be".

[This message has been edited by aspirit (edited March 19, 2011).]

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

Well, surrealist fantasy does kinda go along with cyberpunk. Some of the few cyberpunk stories I've read had surrealistic characteristics.

[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited March 20, 2011).]

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

What if the earth was split into two planets. Somehow, by magic or freak happenstance, the two halves stay very close to each other and some people survived the break up.

I think something similar has been done but this would have my own twist to it.

Don't think I would do all of these but could have one half smaller and the larger half has an army that some how travels to the smaller half to conquer it. Or someone finds a bridge that connects to the two. Or someone running from some type of dictator and/or teacher-judge finds a way to go from one to the other. Or have a series of adventures over a long period of years with different characters.

Posted by Josephine Kait (Member # 8157) on :

quote:
What if the earth was split into two planets. Somehow, by magic or freak happenstance, the two halves stay very close to each other and some people survived the break up.

If they were close enough, they could still share the same atmosphere, but I bet the weather would be funky.

What if the two halves were spinning at different speeds?

Posted by Josephine Kait (Member # 8157) on :

What if a girl left home, joined an elite military unit, and got to learn how to turn into a tiger?

Posted by Josephine Kait (Member # 8157) on :

What if all pictures really were gateways to other worlds/realities and there was a magic that could unlock them?

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

quote:

If they were close enough, they could still share the same atmosphere, but I bet the weather would be funky.
What if the two halves were spinning at different speeds?

For what I am thinking they would have to share the same atmosphere. As to them spinning at different speeds, hadn't thought of that but even though it would make it much harder to get from one to the other it wouldn't be impossible.

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

I think something like the tiger thing has been done but go ahead it could still be yours.

And the picture thing. Someone here is already working on an idea similar to that. Is that you?

Actually, Wild Wild West did an episode with that idea. I don't think they ever explained how it worked..some type of science supposedly.

But in either of these cases you can do it with your style. Or someone else here could choose to go for it.

Posted by Josephine Kait (Member # 8157) on :

I posted the following in Separator’s Intro.

quote:
The treehouse is a lot of fun to explore. You never know quite what you’ll come across when you turn the corner. The other day I was minding my own business (really, I was) when I came across the most lifelike painting of a griffin. Darn thing snapped at me!
Fortunately for me that unicorn everyone keeps talking about had escaped the basement again. She almost ran me over to get at that griffin. When the painting went still again it showed the two of them locked in battle. Brilliant scene but…well… if you see that unicorn trotting through the halls again, be on the lookout for a rather savage griffin.

So that’s where I got the idea that I put up here.

Then as I was going to sleep last night, that unicorn piped up and told me her name. A little disconcerting, but I wrote down what she told me.

Posted by JohnColgrove (Member # 9236) on :

quote:
What if all pictures really were gateways to other worlds/realities and there was a magic that could unlock them?

I know the is a belated response but I have to thank Josephine Kait for saying that. That idea will work good for a story I thought of. I have to change a little bit of it to make it work, but the main concept will work well.