“What if…”
Such famous and dangerous words–at least they are for me. They can be applied to a lot of scenarios. They can lead into thousands of different sentences. Yet, the main way I use them often gets me in trouble. Not actual physical or illegal trouble, but more along the lines of getting me in trouble with my characters.
Every major revision I’ve done to my manuscript has always started with these two words.
“What if we got the word count down?”
“What if we changed the characters around? Gave this guy a more important part and let these two be background heroes?”
“What if these characters had big secrets?”
“What if we changed the beginning? What if we did it again?”
“What if the main character had one of my bad habits?”
“What if this city had even bigger trees?”
I often hate when “what if…” comes around. I’ll gripe and groan because I know they mean another rewrite and I don’t want to put myself through that again. For weeks, I’ll wrestle with it, try and decide if the story really needs it. The “what if” doesn’t necessarily win to start. I’ll begin a new draft just to entertain the idea and see if I like it. Then, the reluctance that this actually a good idea sinks in. I’ll roll with it for the rest of the story.
Thankfully, with each new draft I feel better about my manuscript and I always believe it’s closer than ever to becoming what it needs to be. I just hope there isn’t too many more “what ifs” to cause even more major revisions. It’s a daunting thought to think that my story is still far from what it needs to be, but it has come a long way already. Whenever it feels too heavy, I try to invite “what if” to come back around again. Because…
What if I actually did get published and I got to hold my own book in my hands?
nikki diekemper 