On Writing : Questions by Meriem Bouziani

I ask questions about my story world, Meriem Bouziani. What are the laws? Do they drive? Etc.

Yes, asking about the world laws is essential for building a coherent and consistent story Maurice Vaughan

You're right, Meriem Bouziani. Sometimes I come up with technology, companies, etc. for a world. I don't put everything about the world in a script, but it helps me know the world and come up with things for the story.

That’s so interesting.

I develop the world mainly for the story itself, and I don’t usually keep anything private, but I think this is a good idea—I’ll try it as well Maurice Vaughan

I think what ifs are a great way to kick start an idea going as I've used it myself for several concepts I'm currently working on, like what if the white house was harboring a fugitive or what if a famous landmark was attacked, things like that and I think another good thing to do is maybe exchange ideas between other writers in which you share what if scenarios with each other depending on the genre you like, like me the action thriller genre is no problem for me as I can share ideas all day and night, and I'm pretty neutral on getting AI involved in the process as some writers find it useful while others it just completely ruins their story but I feel as most of the work should come from the writer not a bot, like its not a bots job to write the book but rather to act as an assistant or notebook

Hope it helps, Meriem Bouziani!

Yes, exchanging ideas helps them grow even more, and I really like that. I only share small glimpses from my different worlds, though. It wasn’t easy for me to start showing up, even with just a few glimpses, but I’ve come to understand that it’s part of the process Paul Antonucci

thank you very much Maurice Vaughan

You're welcome, Meriem Bouziani.

The type of questions that expand my ideas and narratives are usually related to psychology (since the world depicted in my stories is the real world and realism is one of my main goals). I start with a set of central events and characters in mind. Then I begin to think, "why would character X do what they did?" or "how would character Y carry out this action?", aiming to avoid anything implausible. Normally, the result of this questioning is having psychological profiles for each relevant character and a scheme of the story's causal chain.

Thank you very much Letícia Peyrous

Yes, questions are essential for developing the story’s logic and structure.

Meriem Bouziani Writers can come up with story ideas by asking themselves "what if _______ (book, movie, etc.) took place in another location?," then coming up with an original idea. Like "what if Rocky took place on an alien planet?"

Yes, that’s possible. In fact, I think that we're in a creative state, when it’s very hard to invent something completely new. We often take small glimpses from existing ideas to develop new perspectives and build new worlds—but we can still invent Maurice Vaughan

For me; I tend to put all the pieces of my work together in the beginning. Then, from there I build up to what I am aiming to produce in the long haul. I have approximately 55 million thoughts per hour, on average, so attempting to connect everything while in the process of writing.. is counterproductive for me.

That's truly inspiring thank you very much for sharing your journey Matthew Wach

“Meriem — I love this framing. ‘What if’ opens the door, but I’ve found it’s the follow-up questions that really deepen the world — questions like what does this cost the character, what are they avoiding, or what happens if they don’t change. Asking from different angles — emotional, moral, practical — seems to turn ideas into lived-in worlds rather than just concepts.

Yes, of course. ‘What if’ is the first step; the other questions lead to the creation of the entire world. Charmane Wedderburn

Exactly — ‘what if’ opens the door, and the questions that follow are what furnish the world. It’s in that questioning that the story starts to breathe.

What's the worst thing that could happen to my protagonist, and what's the best thing that could happen? These two questions lead me to wonder not only about the characters, but also about the plot and the protagonist's possible transformation arc.

Thank you very much—those are truly important questions for developing strong characters. I’ll definitely try them with my own characters as well Tania Cárdenas Paulsen