How Do You Do It?

What is fiction? How do you write it?

People often ask me how I come up with ideas for stories. They tell me, “I could never do that.” To which I politely reply: “Baloney.”

Coming up with a story idea is the easiest thing in the world. Fiction, at its most basic, is simply asking the question “What if…” and then answering it. In fact, you probably do this all the time without realizing it.

When you have indigestion and wonder, What if I’d had the fish instead of the steak? that’s a “wha...