What if?

Confession time: I watched the Lord of the Rings movies, before I read the books.  Feel free to judge me. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve watched them. But without fail, when watching the movies (and in reading the books), I ask myself, “How did J.R.R. Tolkien create an entire world and its history?!” I wondered this for years until I found myself in an unusual frame of mind.

In 2008, I moved back to the UK for a while, having lived in Australia for 7 years. I landed precisely when the effects of the Global Financial Crisis were becoming more evident.  On a cool day in December I wandered down Oxford Street, in London, to be greeted with vacant shops and ‘Closing Down!’ signs. It was a confronting reality and a question popped into my mind. “How could we prevent this from happening again?” And by this, I mean the implications of banks being too generous with loans and people proactively choosing to live beyond their means. My response was government control. There’s a technical term for it—communism. And from there I started to ask myself  “What if…?” questions. “What if there was a limit to earnings?” “What if global institutions didn’t exist?” And it was from these “What if…?” questions that an idea germinated and in turn it took form as a premise for a world and for a story.

I don’t know how Tolkien came up with his world and his story, but I suspect it started with a thought followed by a question. 

Perhaps the greatest books find their beginnings in the question, ‘What if...?” Perhaps yours could too...

Cheering you on,

SB

PS Let me know your ‘What if…?’ in the comments section below. And let’s cheer each other on.

PPS I know in a recent blog I said,“Thinking isn’t writing.” Maybe thinking is the start of writing, but I stand by the fact that thinking and talking don’t automatically turn into a book, that’s where the writing comes into play! Just wanted to make that clear haha!