I was stuck. I thought I had the whole book planned out but then I just couldn't write it.

What happened?

I wasn't feeling the story anymore. Perhaps I had watched the movie (this for me is when the story--every scene--plays out in my head like a movie) too many times. Had I become bored with the story?

For a long time I believed this to be so because I couldn't find another reason. But then it hit me, what I had done was ruin my own story. I had given myself a story too depressing to write. In the manuscript I had created a beautiful love story between two characters and then the mystery writer in me emerged and killed off one of them. I took away my happy ending. The spark was gone until I pulled out the writer's secret weapon, the two words that open up a portal of creativity:

What if...
I thought, what if I created another love story? What if the survivor fell in love with someone else? What if the murder victim had actually survived the attack? I ideas, the words, the drive to write came back.
And don't wait until you're blocked to use these words. Constantly ask yourself what if... Don't be afraid to go to extremes. Go wild. Having to contemplate a scenario will only improve your creative skill.
What about you? How often to you use the "What if..." card? Has it sparked your creativity?
Photo source: Lori Greig /Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)