Question Your Imagination

The other night I plopped on my bed with my idea notebook opened on my lap. My mind was just about as blank as the white page in front of me. At that point, I only had two weeks until NaNo WriMo began (see below for NaNo info). I could not think of anything I wanted to write about; only lame pieces to boring plots shuffled through my head.  

I often procrastinate more than I should when it comes to writing, so this was not new to me. I wracked my brain for something, anything to help me get over writer’s block. Then, I remembered reading a ‘how to write’ book about a method called ‘question your imagination.’ The wheels of my imagination creaked into motion.

So, what is the ‘question your imagination’ method? Simply ask yourself a question that you think is interesting and start it with ‘what if’.  Next think of another ‘what if’ question that digs deeper into what the first was asking. Then write another and another, always following that same pattern. After you’re done, read back through the sentences and cross out the ones that don’t fit into your story or don’t excite you.

Here’s an example from a story I made up several years ago:

What if merpeople were real?

What if the king of those supposed merpeople had a beautiful daughter?

What if the king had adopted her from a different school of merpeople when she was young?

What if she had never seen her reflection?

What if the king didn’t want her to see her reflection?

What if she looked different than his people and he didn’t want her to know?

What if she had purple hair that made her different?

What if it were her eyes that made her different?

What if she ran away from the king because she thought he was too controlling?

What if she didn’t know he was just trying to protect her?

What if she had a fish that could teleport her?

What if she meets an evil merman on her travels?

What if he kills her fish?

What if the king’s real son came to rescue her?

What if he loved her?

This simple tool will help you shape your imaginings and give body to ideas that you’ve already had. It has certainly helped me with my stories.

So if you’re stuck or just feel like you need to explore your story a little more thoroughly, I suggest that you try it. If you ‘question your imagination’, it might take you places that you never expected to go.