The what-if game is not of my personal creation. I’m sure lots of writers use this method to help them generate new ideas, outwit writer’s block, and create plot breakthroughs. This is how I personally use this idea generating device to help me play plot doctor, write myself out of dead ends, and avoid running out of plot.

The game is simple. All you need is a pen or pencil and a sheet of paper, or whatever your preferred writing media is. I highly recommend you use whatever writing method is your most efficient, because speed plays a part in the game. I type easily twice as fast as I handwrite, so I grab my laptop, open a blank document, and get started.

Write out a sentence or two about what is currently happening in your plot and what you plan to happen next. For instance: ‘Katie is trapped in the cellar of the old house after investigating a strange noise. She discovers the source is just an angry rat caught in an old trap.’ This is a completely random bit for a made-up novel that I will never write, so I have no idea where in this fake novel’s plot arc it falls. We’re going to pretend it’s somewhere in the middle.

Now, we play what if.

Katie is trapped in the cellar of the old house after investigating a strange noise. She discovers the source is just an angry rat caught in an old trap. What if instead of a rat, it’s a person? What if it’s the stranger she ran into at the drugstore two days ago? What if instead of finding the source of the noise, the noise gets louder, and she has to bust out a window and runs away? What if something chases her? What if instead someone calls out her name? What if it’s her ex? What if it’s her friend from work? How would they know she was there? What if instead she finds a message left by the old occupant? What if it’s addressed specifically to her, although she never knew them?

Don’t hold back. Get wild. I like to follow the thread of a ‘what if’ for a while, and then go back to the source and start a new thread, indicated by the ‘what if instead’ phrase. I can do this for pages and pages. It allows me to briefly and efficiently follow the possibilities suggested by each different action without having to do anything as structured as an outline – that would be a lot of outlines.

Not only does this generate ideas; it allows you to test their viability. Write or type as quickly as you can. Try to outpace the voice of your inner critic that tries to scrap ideas before you’ve given them a chance. Write out as many ideas and threads as you can. Even if you land on something that you think is The One, keep writing. See what else your mind can come up with until it completely taps out of ideas.

At the end, I pull the ideas I want to use and save the rest for later. They might prove useful for the same novel later on, or I might retrofit them to different books. You can never have a surplus of ideas.

Let me know if you’ve played the what-if game before, how you play it, and whether or not it works for you!