Grab your phone, tablet, keyboard or pen and paper.
Imagine you are waiting in a parking lot. People are walking in front of you on the way into the store. The wind is kicking up and leaves, plastic bags and other trash is skittering around the edges of the lot. With each gust of wind you see the people moving faster. A woman in a blazer and skirt
hurriedly scoops a chunk of hair behind her ear. A man in basketball shorts and a torn green hoodie stops the door and lets blazer woman in ahead of him. A woman with two kids come out of the store with a cart heavy with soft drinks and paper products. A pebble jams her front wheel.
Who are these random people? Who do they love? What are their houses like? How many of them have a list? Are they running late or are they just cold, caught in an
abrupt weather change?
Now, what if instead of holding the door, green hoodie guy pulls out a knife and jabs it up under blazer lady's ribs? What if one of those little kids makes a run for it while the woman is unjamming the cart wheel?
What if suddenly the sky opens up and a spectacular number of dragons swoop down and land on the store roof?
What if the person you are waiting for is robbing the store and you are the get-away driver?
What if you have just learned something you've worked and wished toward is supposed to come true and you've been told to wait where you are?
The people you've pretended to see are story starters and the what ifs are story changers.
Viewing as a neutral observer is much different than viewing as a participant. The perfect What If can make a story.
Make up your own people in a parking lot with your own weather and your own back stories.
