Terry Hickman's Light Bulb Alley: Stapler
SUBSTITUTE ANYTHING YOU WANT FOR "STAPLER" AND START ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS
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The following exchange occurred on Speculations Rumor Mill (a message board for spec fiction writers; you don't have
to subscribe to the quarterly spec fiction market gold mine known as Speculations to participate, but usually people who become involved in the RM end up subscribing, because it's so valuable for a writer).
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Message #20 left by Paul Pence on Jan 25, 2000 at 17:40A little more seriously than before, this is how I get a lot of SF ideas...
I look at something mundane, like a stapler, and ask a series of questions:
What will replace this in fifty years?
What problem could this possibly cause a person?
What kind of person would feel this problem more than anyone else in the world?
What would make this problem the biggest thing that has ever happened to this person?
How would I work to overcome this problem if I were in the same situation?
What things keep this person from succeeding in overcoming the problem?
What ultimate price or risk must the person face in order to finally overcome the problem?
How does this stuggle affect the person?
With whom does this person interact so that we can discover the problem through action and dialogue?
How do these other persons handle this problem and its resolution?With small changes, these questions can set up almost any kind of story. I'm sure that there are writing books out there with a more exhaustive list of questions -- maybe even a computer program or two.
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