It’s the skill of using your imagination to transport your ideas to alternative situations.
You take your idea and ask ‘What if...’ questions:
What if... I changed something?
What if... it happened differently?
What if... it took place somewhere else?
What if... a character reacted differently?
What if... it happened to completely different people?
and so on.
For example, the first TV script I ever sold opened in a vast supermarket floating through space.
This idea took something very ordinary — a supermarket — and asked, ‘What if we take it to an unexpected location?’
It would be easy to develop the story further by taking that same idea and applying even more ‘What ifs...’ to it:
What if two shoppers fall in love while queuing at the checkout?
What if the security chief is a psychopath using surveillance video to select victims?
What if the staff win the lottery and open a rival store?
And so on.
By using the Magic ‘What If...’ you can come up with creative new ideas to catch the imaginations of your readers or viewers.
Any good story, from classics to the latest TV drama, is full of Magic ‘What Ifs...’.
Romeo and Juliet takes two lovers and asks,
What if the lovers’ families are at war?
Buffy takes a vampire story and asks
What if the vampire slayer is an ordinary teenage schoolgirl?
(or maybe the writer Joss Whedon thought of it the other way round, starting with an ordinary teenager and imagining, ‘What if she has some supernatural talent?’).
The Magic ‘What If...’ not only provides the starting point for your story (as in Romeo and Juliet, and Buffy), but you can also use them for individual story moments:
What if the character reacts differently?
What if something unexpected happens?
What if a different character reacts?
Raymond Chandler famously advised that, if you're in doubt with a story, have two guys come through the door with guns.
In fact this is simply a ‘What If...’:
What if two men suddenly appear holding guns?
Writers get their ideas from all around.
Even the most ordinary people and places can become interesting if you begin to imagine, ‘What if...’:
What if my new work colleague was being protected by a witness relocation programme?
What if my local park was built on an ancient burial ground?
What if my sweet old grandma got together with her friends to solve a mystery?
and so on.
You can practise this by picking an ordinary person, place or event from your real life, and then imagine as many different ways as you can of changing it using the Magic ‘What If...’.
Let your imagination run riot!