Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series!
Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft.
Today’s Exercise is
The What-If Machine
- Objective: To generate unique story concepts by randomly combining core elements.
- How to Play:
- Create three hats or bowls.
- In the first hat, everyone adds slips of paper with a character archetype (“a retired astronaut,” “a skeptical ghost hunter,” “a chef who can’t taste”).
- In the second, add a situation (“inherits a haunted bookstore,” “must win a reality TV competition,” “wakes up with a strange new ability”).
- In the third, add a setting (“a deep-sea research station,” “a magical traveling circus,” “post-cyberpunk Miami”).
- To create a new prompt, simply draw one slip from each of the three hats. The resulting combination (“A retired astronaut must win a reality TV competition on a deep-sea research station”) is almost guaranteed to be original.
- Best for: Overcoming “I have no ideas,” creating high-concept story prompts, and sparking creativity.
Below are some examples of the Who, What, and Where to get you started:
Character Archetypes (The “Who”)
- A jaded, seen-it-all detective
- A disgraced royal knight seeking redemption
- An overly optimistic inventor whose creations always backfire
- A world-weary ghost who has seen it all
- A con artist with a heart of gold
- The last surviving member of an ancient, magical order
- A celebrity chef who has lost their sense of taste
- A librarian who can read the history of any object they touch
- A retired astronaut haunted by what they saw in deep space
- An AI that has just become self-aware
- A reformed supervillain trying to live a normal life
- A skeptical paranormal investigator
- A child who can speak to animals
- A master thief who only steals worthless, sentimental objects
- An immortal being who is tired of living
- A down-on-their-luck musician who can hear people’s “soul music”
- A ruthless corporate CEO on a spiritual retreat
- A humble farmer who is secretly a master swordsman
- A time traveler stuck in the wrong era
- The overworked manager of a supernatural hotel
- A cartographer who maps imaginary places
- A grizzled alligator wrestler from the Florida swamps
- A deep-sea biologist
- A bureaucrat from the Department of Fates and Prophecies
- A washed-up stage magician
Situations (The “What Happens”)
- Inherits a haunted bookstore
- Must win a high-stakes, deadly reality TV competition
- Wakes up with a strange and uncontrollable new ability
- Discovers a map to a lost, mythical city
- Receives a cryptic message from their future self
- Must deliver a mysterious, ticking package
- Is framed for a crime they didn’t commit
- Becomes the sole guardian of a magical creature
- Accidentally starts a world-ending prophecy
- Must plan the perfect, impossible heist
- Finds a lost dog that is much more than it seems
- Has to survive 24 hours in a city-wide manhunt
- Must broker a peace treaty between two warring factions
- Discovers their entire life has been a lie
- Is chosen by an ancient artifact to go on a quest
- Uncovers a vast conspiracy that goes to the very top
- Must reverse a curse that is slowly turning them to stone
- Falls in love with their sworn enemy
- Becomes the prime suspect in their own murder investigation
- Must train a hopeless rookie for a vital mission
- Their shadow comes to life and starts causing chaos
- Loses their most cherished memory
- Must survive a category 5 hurricane
- Stumbles upon a secret, ancient society
- Is declared the ruler of a tiny, bizarre nation
Settings (The “Where”)
- On a generation ship traveling to a new star system
- In a magical, traveling circus
- At a deep-sea research station at the bottom of the Mariana Trench
- In post-cyberpunk Miami
- Inside a grand, sentient library with shifting corridors
- At a hotel that caters exclusively to gods and monsters
- In a city built on the back of a colossal, sleeping creature
- During a permanent, planet-wide ice age
- In a high-tech, inescapable prison
- Aboard a pirate ship on a sea of acid on an alien planet
- In the last human city after a zombie apocalypse
- At a magical university hidden from the modern world
- Inside a massive, shared virtual reality simulation
- In a Victorian London powered by steam and clockwork
- On an abandoned, haunted space station
- In a subterranean dwarven city carved from gemstones
- At a rowdy, neutral-ground spaceport bar
- Deep within the Florida Everglades
- On a floating island in the sky
- Within a microscopic world on a speck of dust
- At the glittering, treacherous court of the Fae
- In a small town where magic is real but strictly illegal
- On an archaeological dig on a ruined alien world
- At a mysterious, isolated Antarctic research base
- Inside a colossal, world-spanning tree
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