Part 1
Writers can find inspiration in all sorts of places. Many are inspired to write by ordinary things that happen in their daily lives, like how JK Rowling came up with the idea for Harry Potter on a delayed train between Manchester & London (may all our delays be so fruitful). Gail Honeyman was inspired to write her bestselling novel, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, after reading a newspaper article about a lonely young woman living a completely ordinary, isolated life in the city.
Today we will look for sources of inspiration in our own life, then look at how we can change these to make them more dramatic (and avoid upsetting our loved ones, who might recognise themselves).
Activity 1
Spend 15 minutes writing a short factual account about something that happened to you recently. This can be incredibly mundane. Don’t worry, we’ll work on making it interesting later. The goal is just to get the memory down on paper. Try to include some detail on the location, as well as one or two people you spoke to, or just noticed from afar. These details will give you more to work with later.
You could write about:
– A walk you’ve been on recently, the streets you passed through and anyone you spoke to on the way.
– A visit to a corner shop to pick up something for dinner.
– A recent dinner or coffee with family or friends.
– etc
Part 2
Now we have our real life foundations, in order to turn this into a work of fiction, we play the “what if” game. In this game, we keep the basic setting or core interactions of our real life piece, but introduce a major twist to the stakes, genre or timeline.
– What if the man and the woman crossing the road were spies exchanging a coded signal?
– What if the corner shop was transported back to the 1920’s?
– What if the shopkeeper was about to close the shop for the final time? Why? What would he do next?
– What if the person next to be on the bus was holding a suitcase of cash? How did they get it?
– What if aliens secretly replaced one of your family? How would you notice? Would the rest of your family believe you if you told them?
See how the questions naturally lead to more questions. Your “what ifs” don’t need to be fantastical or surreal. They could be simple.
Activity 2
Take 10 minutes to write down as many “what ifs” as you can for the thing you wrote about in Part 1. Just let the ideas flow for this part. They can be as wild or as subtle as you like.
Part 3
Look over your list of “what ifs” and pick the one that jumps out at you, or inspires you the most. Use this for inspiration for a poem, a short story, or start of a longer piece. You might start with one “what if” and incorporate more as you go. If you get stuck or run out of steam, look back at your original, real life piece from Part 1. Use those real sensory details you wrote down—the smell of the shop, the weather on your walk, the way a person moved their hands—and pull them into your new fictional world. Combining real details with a wild “what if” helps to create stories that feel grounded and alive.
Activity 3
Take 25 minutes for this section. Where does your true story go?
“Stranger on Platform 2C” by tubblesnap is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Stacey Cass – June 2026
Leave a Reply