WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF?
by Lynn Colwell
When novelists are having trouble coming up with plot twists, they may ask themselves, "What would happen if..."
"What would happen if, Rosemary, instead of wearing her typical jeans and t-shirt, decided to go to the market in a flashy red dress?"
"What would happen if Lance told his boss his name is really Dieter?"
“What would happen if, instead of opening the door to her own car, mousy, never-did-anything-wrong-in-her-life-Stella was overcome with an insatiable urge to steal the convertible parked next to her 25-year-old station wagon?"
I have come to believe that when we are stuck in any area of our lives, whether writing-related or not, negativity envelopes us. We’re like flies in a spider web. All our kicking and screaming only serves to tighten the noose.
This is a great opportunity to play I call the Positive What if Game. In this game, we take the opposite of what we expect to happen (almost always the worst) and see what might happen when the other side (usually the positive) plays out. After all, the truth is that in many, many circumstances, a positive outcome is just as likely as a negative one. Yet fear of the 50% negative paralyzes us.
So try this…
What if, instead of rejecting my query or article, the editor accepts it?
What if, instead of writing a terrible article, I write a wonderful one?
What if, instead of critics eating me for lunch, they love my book?
What if, regardless of how anyone treats me or no matter what they say, I survive and thrive?”
Asking “What would happen if?” can be used in many ways to help us get beyond our blocks.
It can stimulate our brains into coming up with alternative strategies to overcome our current funk. It can help us to see the light and that there is more than one answer to what appears to be a permanent dilemma. In short, it can spur us to action whenever we feel stuck
There is a one big "if," connected with this idea. We have to be willing to forget about the "but," as in, "Well, I could get up in our earlier to work on the book, but..." or "I could just ignore people who tell me my writing isn't very good, but..." or "I could stop making excuses and just sit down and write, but..."
The secret to using "What would happen if..." is to play. Don't evaluate a your responses. If you were using this phrase as a writing prompt, you would explore the options. You wouldn't cut off the idea before you have a chance to try it out on your character. Neither should you nip your thoughts in the bud or denigrate them by placing “but” in front.
“What would happen if?” isn’t the answer to every challenge, but it’s an easy, relatively pain free way to get at whatever is holding you back and more importantly, get you beyond it.
(c) 2006, Lynn Colwell
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