I’ve checked Reedsy, Seventh Sanctum und Reddit – it’s nice to have, but nowadays, AI can give you very specific writing prompts within seconds. I think that this is now the most effective way to start creating story ideas.

Checking out Notion will cost me more time. So far I’ve used OneNote. But it seems like the basic Notion plan is free. If it offers everything that I need, this could be another reason to abandon Office365.

The tips on categorizing ideas is a good one to explore. I simply wrote everything thing down and have a giant bullet point list now which is hard to navigate.

Once I’ve got a better system setup, I’ll write a more conclusive post about creating an idea bank.

You can follow my Grok Diary in real time here: @michael_brig

For step 1 AI models have become super helpful. Just tell Grok/ChatGPT/Claude to give you some prompts, pick one and start. Even step 2 can be assisted with AI. Step 3 is then the job of the author: Pick your favorite hook and store it in your swipe file.

You can follow the project in real time here: @michael_brig

To be honest, generating ideas was never my problem. I’ve got this giant swipe file with hundreds of ideas to tap into. And whenever I do some outlining, new ideas for stories jump to mind quickly.

But I’m still looking for a 5-minute drill to use at the end of the day so that my swipe file never reaches its end. I guess, this might be a question to Grok for tomorrow.

You can follow the project in real time here: @michael_brig

I asked Grok to further explain the method in the backend. Here is the full answer:

What if Method Explained

The “What if” method is one of the simplest, most powerful, and most widely used techniques for generating story ideas in fiction writing. It’s essentially a speculative question that takes a familiar situation, fact, person, object, rule, or event from reality (or from an existing trope/story) and twists it by asking:

“What if [something impossible, unexpected, exaggerated, or reversed] happened?”

This single question forces your brain to leap away from the ordinary and into conflict, possibility, and originality — which is exactly where good stories live.

Why it works so well

• It starts small and everyday (an observation you can make right now) but quickly escalates into high-stakes drama or wonder.
• It bypasses “I have no ideas” by using the real world as raw material.
• Almost every major story can be traced back to a “What if” core (examples below).
• It’s endlessly repeatable: one good “What if” can spawn dozens of variations.

How the method typically works (step by step)

1. Observe something normal
Look around, read news, overhear a conversation, remember a memory, or take a common trope.
Example observations:

• A child playing alone in a park
• People staring at their phones on the subway
• A solar eclipse happening on schedule
• A rat in a restaurant kitchen

2. Ask “What if…?” and twist it
Add one surprising, contradictory, extreme, or impossible element.
Push it toward conflict, emotion, or high stakes.
Examples from above:

• What if that child playing alone could see and talk to dead people? → The Sixth Sense
• What if staring at phones actually let people control others’ minds? → Black Mirror episode
• What if the eclipse was late… or never ended? → speculative short story
• What if that rat was a master chef in disguise? → Ratatouille

3. Follow the chain of consequences
Once you have a strong “What if”, ask:

• Who would this affect most?
• What would they want/lose?
• What happens next? (escalate)
• Why does this matter emotionally/thematically?
  This turns the idea into a premise, then a plot skeleton.

4. Vary the intensity

• Mild: What if someone forgot their phone for a day?
• Extreme: What if forgetting your phone erased your entire identity from the world?
• Genre flip: What if forgetting your phone turned you into a ghost?

Famous examples of “What if” origins

• Jurassic Park → What if we could clone dinosaurs and put them in a theme park… and the safeguards failed?
• Toy Story → What if toys were alive when humans weren’t looking?
• The Matrix → What if the world we see is a computer simulation?
• Jaws → What if a great white shark started hunting humans off a small-town beach during tourist season?
• Inception → What if you could enter and manipulate people’s dreams?

Practical tips to use it right now

• Keep a tiny list on your phone or notebook: 5–10 daily “What if” questions (takes 2–5 minutes).
• Combine it with other sources: news headlines, overheard sentences, random objects, fairy tales, history.
• When stuck, take any boring situation (waiting for the bus, doing dishes) and ask: “What if [worst/best/weirdest thing] happened right now?”
• Generate 10 bad/weird ones on purpose — the 11th is often gold.