This is one of my favourite questions to use when I'm having a brainstorming session every so often. I use such sessions to generate story ideas, ideas for my Chandler's Ford Today posts and so on. I make myself think outside of my usual comfort zone and it can also be used to ask yourself really awkward questions of your characters. Put them through the mill. You will find out more about them than you realised you knew doing that. Questions like this bring out all sorts of things from the sub-conscious!
What if a character you thought was capable of doing X suddenly isn't? What would bring about that change of attitude? Religious conversion? Someone talked them out of whatever the proposed action was? What if the more magic you use, the quicker your death would be as it drains you? That would encourage your characters to use non-magical means to solve their problems (and almost certainly would lead to more interesting ideas than just calling on your fairy godmother to bail you out).
You can apply what if to yourself too. What if Plan A for my writing doesn't work out? Switch to Plan B! What is Plan B? Go and look at other forms of writing out there, different to what you currently do, and explore possibilities. Have fun doing so. I did this and I ended up writing flash fiction. I now have a published flash fiction collection so be open to possibilities!
What if a character you thought was capable of doing X suddenly isn't? What would bring about that change of attitude? Religious conversion? Someone talked them out of whatever the proposed action was? What if the more magic you use, the quicker your death would be as it drains you? That would encourage your characters to use non-magical means to solve their problems (and almost certainly would lead to more interesting ideas than just calling on your fairy godmother to bail you out).
You can apply what if to yourself too. What if Plan A for my writing doesn't work out? Switch to Plan B! What is Plan B? Go and look at other forms of writing out there, different to what you currently do, and explore possibilities. Have fun doing so. I did this and I ended up writing flash fiction. I now have a published flash fiction collection so be open to possibilities!
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