What If This Goes On?

A Major Question For SF Writers…

A great way to get stories, but the question of “What if this goes on?” is never simple and often not something anyone wants to explore.

That is the topic of a special workshop from our last Kickstarter, and wow, as a sf writer my entire life, a bunch of stuff about asking that question just bothers me these days.

But thinking about it, in one way or another, that question bothered me through all my life.

One day at school back in the late 1950s, they had us do a duck-and-cover drill and crawl under our wooden desks in case of a nuclear attack.

I got home and asked my parents why we had to do that? Did they want to make sure all the children died quickly in an attack by making each of us hide under a pile of kindling?

My dad laughed. My mother had no sense of humor, but my question was an honest one, and clearly was an early sign I would be a science fiction writer.

So caution on that question, “What if this goes on?” Don’t ask it about anything going on now if you don’t want to face the possible answers.