Exercise #2: Once you’ve selected the few ideas that might work, start looking for tangents: “If such and such happened, then what if this also happened? Or what if this happened instead?” The possibilities are endless. Be sure to return to this section and add to your list whenever a new idea strikes.
A VARIATION OF the “what if” question is “What is expected?” Exercise: Divide your notebook page into two columns. In the first column, list everything you can imagine the average reader expecting to happen in your type of story. In the second column, across from each item, write an alternate event. Put a check beside any idea you want to fulfill. Examples:
Exercise: Flip the previous exercise on its head and brainstorm concepts readers would not automatically expect from your story, based on its genre, its characters, and its early plot. Put a check beside any idea that sounds promising. Examples: It is unexpected the hero will lose his superhuman powers. (Spider-Man 2 directed by Sam Raimi) It is unexpected that opponents in a crucial contest will fall in love. (The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern) It is unexpected a teenage girl will set out on the trail to avenge her father’s murder. (True Grit by Charles Portis)
Exercise #1: Start by answering the following questions. If you don’t currently know the answer to any question, skip it and keep going. Return to fill in the blanks after you’ve figured out more of your story. There is no right order in which to do any of this.
Question #1: Who is your protagonist? Woulf
Question #1.1: Is your protagonist ordinary or extraordinary?
Question #2: What is his situation at the beginning of the story?
Question #2.1: What is the protagonist’s personal condition at the beginning?
Question #2.2: How is it going to be changed, for better or worse, by the protagonist himself or by the antagonistic force?
Question #2.3: Is your protagonist’s situation ordinary or extraordinary?
Question #3: What is the protagonist’s objective?
Question #4: Who or what is the main opponent?
Question #5: What early disaster will befall the protagonist and force him out of his “normal world” and into the main conflict?
Question #6: What conflict will result from the hero’s reaction to the disaster?
Question #6.1: What is the logical flow of cause and effect that will allow this conflict to continue throughout the story?
Question #7: Is this idea plausible?
Question #8: Is this idea original?
Question #8.1: How is this idea different from similar stories?
Question #8.2: How can you strengthen its originality?
Question #9: What is the focus of your story?
Question #9.1: What will be its genre?
Question #9.2: Who will be its intended audience?
Exercise #2: Using the information you’ve discovered in answering the above questions, put them all together into a premise sentence(s). Reference: Outlining Your Novel, chapter 3, pages 50-52.
