The Sci-Fi Story Engine

Guided Practice: Run the storm and generate 20+ premises (no judging, just output) Time required: 8-10 minutes Materials needed (pick one): notebook + pen, or a notes app + typing

You’re going to do one job: generate more than 20 sci-fi premises using rapid “What if…?” questions. No “this is good” or “this sucks.” Just output.

1. Choose a theme to aim at for 30 seconds (pick one): bodies, cities, work, schools, animals, space, or communication. 2. Start a list. Write What if…? at the start of every line. 3. Keep each question short - one sentence is perfect. 4. If you run out, switch the kind of twist, like: - “disappears” (a rule vanishes), - “reverses” (a rule flips), - “spreads” (it spreads to everyone), - “updates” (it changes over time), - “enforces” (it punishes people instantly). 5. When your timer ends, stop. Circle your top 5 only by instinct (no rewriting, no fixing yet). You can come back later.

Completed example (use this format): > What if gravity disappeared for one hour every day, but only in places where someone is hiding a secret? > What if your dreams could be downloaded and sold like music, and the nightmares were the real product? > What if animals could suddenly speak, but they only used human words they heard in arguments?

Now do yours. Title your page “The What If Storm” and start listing.

Your Turn: “What If…” list (aim for 25+) What if _______________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _______________________________________________________________________________________________

Quick self-check (measurable): - Did you write more than 20 “What if…?” lines? ☐ Yes ☐ No - Did you stop yourself from judging while writing? ☐ Yes ☐ No

If you only have 18 or 19, don’t spiral. Add 5 more lines right now - same rules, same speed.

Your Turn (2-minute burst, if needed): What if _______________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ What if _______________________________________________________________________________________________

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Real-World Application: Use everyday “What if” moments to keep ideas coming You don’t have to wait for a lightning-bolt moment. Sci-fi premises pop out of normal life the second you treat a routine like a rule you can bend.

Try this: when something annoys you, make it the “normal” baseline, then ask what if it changes. For instance, you’re stuck in a slow elevator. Okay - now twist the rule. What if elevators didn’t just move you, but also showed you how you’d die in that building? Expected outcome: your premise turns into a conflict engine, because someone will try to exploit or avoid the information. Even better, it naturally creates stakes (fear, choices, consequences) without you forcing them.

Or take a common system: school. **What if your school tracked your “future self” choices and graded you on what you would do, not what you did?** Expected outcome: you get tension between free will and prediction. Your story problem becomes “how do you live when your future is already being used against you?”

Another easy scenario: communication. You read a message that feels vague or threatening. Twist the rule of privacy or truth. What if your phone automatically translated lies into a different tone - so everyone could tell when someone was masking the truth? Expected outcome: relationships shift fast, because trust changes overnight. People adapt. Some people weaponize it. Some people hide.

Apply It (pick one real situation and twist it): - Scenario from your day (work, commute, family chat, shopping, waiting in line): ________________________________________ - What is the “normal rule” in that situation? _____________________________________________________________ - Your “What if…?” twist (write one line): ____________________________________________________________________

Expected outcome check: After your twist, what becomes harder or riskier? Write one sentence: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your Turn (mini-storm, 3 minutes): Write 5 more “What if…?” questions, but all tied to the same scenario you picked above. Consistency helps you get premises that feel connected.

1) What if _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 2) What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3) What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 4) What if _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 5) What if _______________________________________________________________________________________________

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Reflect: Lock in the premises you’d actually want to write next Now you’ve got a pile of questions. Good. But piles only help if you can grab a few with confidence.

Pick your top 3 from the ones you circled earlier. Then answer the prompts below. Be specific. Don’t explain the whole plot - just commit to what the premise does.

Reflect Question 1: Which “What if…” premise feels most alive to you right now, and why? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reflect Question 2: For your favorite premise, what immediately benefits from the change - and who gets hurt? (Name both.) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reflect Question 3: What’s the part that makes it impossible to ignore? (Is it danger, loss, injustice, or something that spreads?) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your Next Step (measurable): Choose one premise from your top 3 and rewrite it as a single-sentence story engine starter in this exact format: Someone… wants… but… because… they must… or else…

Fill it in here: Someone _______________________________________________________________________________________________ wants _______________________________________________________________________________________________ but __________________________________________________________________________________________________ because _____________________________________________________________________________________________ they must ___________________________________________________________________________________________ or else _______________________________________________________________________________________________

When you’re done, stop. That’s enough momentum to move on to building the rest of the story. Your brain just did the hard part - creating options fast. Now you get to pick one and make it matter.

End of chapter one. 4 more chapters in the full book.