What if…?

Do you write fiction? Are you stuck in your story? It’s not going anywhere? How about you ask yourself, what if you were the main character? What if you were in their situation in the story? How would you feel? How would you act? What would you do?

I did this exercise for one of my author clients. I said to him to imagine that he is the character. Put himself in his head where the story starts. How was he feeling at that time? Describe his feelings. It really got my client thinking. And I believe got his imagination fired up again.

Let’s take one of my characters, Lizzie. She is a teen angel and is about to show her friends, who are on a journey that will risk their lives, her death and what it sounds and smells like. (I am going more scary in this one). I am Lizzie, on a train approaching the train station where my friends are getting off. I have to stop them from reaching their destination. Here is what I put (and I write this one in first person point of view, anyway).

‘Oh no. We were about to pull into East Croydon station and I hadn’t managed to stop them yet. My wings quivered with the thought of what I had to do. So far, I had already seen how I’d died, but we were about to take it up another level and bring in sounds and smells. I swallowed, imagining the smell and taste of blood that would show on my own body.’

I hope that shows some feeling and emotion of how I’d feel if I was Lizzie.

So, if you are stuck in your story, ask yourself, what if? What if?   I’d like to thank Hilary Johnson, my editor, for this idea.