Part II

We all know that most fantasy and science fiction stories owe their origins to the question “What if ____?” Yet we shouldn’t be content to leave it at that, because it’s a very good question to ask at every single stage of the writing process. “What if, instead of what I had originally planned, my character decided to do this?” “What if, instead of following the obvious course, I choose to examine one of the other possible consequences of this particular set of circumstances?”...

In spite of the artfully sinister title, this was originally written to encourage new writers. (Of course, old writers need encouraging, too.) I've put it through quite a bit of revision since. I hope that it will be inspiring.

However that might be, this is another one of my long-winded articles that contains more characters than the software allows, and so, perforce, must appear in two parts.

ON ORIGINALITY (WITH SOME ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT OF STYLE)...