What Would Happen If

Over 230 Fantasy Story Ideas

Pandora by Eti Swinford

by
Jessica Lynn Lovelace

Text copyright 2014 Jessica Lynn Lovelace

Using These Prompts

These prompts are merely a guide. You can use them exactly as they are or you can
change them. If it helps, think of each prompt as being the tip of an iceberg. What
lies under the surface? How much farther do these prompts want to take you? Feel
free to alter the person, place, action, object, or even the time period, if inspiration
strikes.
For instance, you can write about this: You find a pink elephant in your bathroom.
Or: You find a pink elephant in your car.
Or: You find a pink elephant peeing in your living room.

Or: You discover your neighbor trying to smuggle an elephant into her garage.
Or: A man tries to sell you an elephant he swears is related to Dumbo.
Or: A lost elephant terrorizes the fruit stands at your local farmers market.
Or: You buy your daughter a baby elephant for her second birthday.
Take these prompts wherever they want to take you. Sit back, let the words flow, and
enjoy the ride.

Contents

Using These Prompts

Animals
Dreams/Sleep
Food
Home
Mythical
Nature
Outside The Home
School
Time/Activation
Transit
Work
Other

Animals

Dog by Katoton

You suddenly understand what its like to be a dog-how they see the world, humans, other animalsbut the ability has a weird side affect. You start to grow sharp canines, floppy ears, a tail, and crave
sweet potato Pupperoni.
Your dog yells at you. In French.
Your cat is allergic to water.
While watching your dog play with his squeaky toy, you realize hes arguing with it.
The monkeys at the zoo simultaneously point and laugh at you.
Your dog starts reading medical text books in your living room.

Your bearded dragon stops eating female crickets.

Your sons chameleon is only happy when shes sleeping curled up on someones head.
Your dog attacks the TV every time Kermit The Frog flashes on the screen.
Your cat becomes terrified of your goldfish.
Your dogs pee is neon pink.
Your gecko starts to shiver uncontrollably no matter how hot you keep his habitat.

It literally rains cats and dogs. Maine Coons, Yorkies, Mastiffs, and more.
Your mini-schnauzer is replaced by a Newfoundland, which answers to the name Hey You.
Your cat starts to bark and your bird starts to meow.
Your dog snores only when you are trying to nap or are talking on the phone.
Your betta starts to tell you what she wants for lunch.
Birds all over the world chirp only during the even hours of the day.

Your neighbor has a pet lion.

The horse youre riding turns into a Great Dane.
Just like a Phoenix, your box turtle periodically bursts into flame and then is reborn from the ashes.
When you turn 40 you are given the gift of animal communication. You can understand any animal
and talk back to them in their language. When you try it out all the animals tell you the same thing: the
world is going to end next Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Your dog sneezes every time she hears the words zoom zoom.

Within one hour all goldfish disappear from the ocean and fish tanks worldwide.
You find a pink elephant in your bathroom.
You adopt an abandoned puppy. One morning when you let him outside to potty, you watch as many
different animals gather around him. You realize that your puppy is telling these animals a story and
that all these animals are riveted.
Your dog gives birth to a litter of kittens.

Your hound develops laryngitis that lasts for over a month.

Dreams/Sleep

Antelope Canyon Arizona by Scott Pehrson

You fall asleep reading. The villain has just been trapped in a canyon. You wake up to find that you
and the villain have switched places. You are now trapped in the canyon and the villain is on a
mission to destroy the book you are in.
You fall asleep in your bed and wake up in a drifting canoe.
You wake up on the Starship Enterprise.
You dream about being a bride whose getting married on a beach. You wake up to the ringing phone
in your home in Alaska. On the phone is the man you married in your dream. Hes in Florida and
wants to know where you are and why youre gone.

This year when everyone falls asleep on Christmas Eve they dont wake up until its New Years
Day. No one has any memory of the days in-between.
You can only fall asleep if your room is 30 degrees.
You dream that you are in your favorite movie. Unfortunately, you cant wake up until you do
something important. But no one will tell you what you need to do.
You fall asleep wearing your pajamas and wake up in scuba gear
Your hair falls out when youre awake and grows when youre sleeping (which includes naps at
work).

Dragons protect you while you sleep.

You dream in black and white. And in German.
You dream that you are living as a different person. You follow that persons daily routinework,
family time, etc. Soon, you cant tell which person is the real you.
You wake up without hair.
One night you dream that you are a famous ballroom dancer. Upon waking you realize that youve
retained that knowledge. You attempt to repeat the process.
Everyone in your house has the same dream.

You can walk through any persons dreams. You can choose the time you dreamwalk, but not the
specific persons.
You dream that you are walking through a maze. When you awake you become obsessed with finding
that specific maze.
You have Sleep Apnea (you stop breathing while you sleep). Your new phone rings (with no one on
the line) whenever you stop breathing.
The Sand Man comes to you in your dreams. He demands your help or else he wont let you wake
up.

Food

Oranges Is Ceramic Dish by Chrissie Shepherd

After drinking orange juice all your life you suddenly become allergic.
Your fortune cookie predicts your mothers death.
For three days everything you drink tastes like champagne.
Disturbingly, every drag of your cigarette tastes like chocolate.
The smell of coffee makes you faint.
Everything you eat tastes like ice cream.
Anything cherry-flavored tastes like vanilla.

You start craving dog food.

You see someone selling bananas on every street corner you pass.
While eating a hot dog all your teeth fall out.
Everything you put into your mouth turns into carrots.
Every piece of food you touch turns to wax.
When you eat grapes you turn invisible for two days. You discover this talent the night before you
embark on a speaking tour.

Every restaurant you go to has a shortage of your favorite food.

All vegetables tastes like fudge.
A demon comes into your care. She will only eat fruit loops.
An old woman arrives on your doorstep selling ripe apples.
You become a fantastic chef only when you cook in your friends kitchen.
Overnight small creatures steal all the food from your kitchen. They leave tiny footprints and a huge
mess.

Every restaurant you drive to closes before you get thereno matter what time it is.
Your pregnant wife starts eating dirt and only dirt.
On a hike you find a real Gingerbread house.
Your dog will only eat french fries.
Your husband keeps eating your strawberry edible shampoo.
Squirrels steal all your oranges from your backyard orange tree.

Home

Tower Stairs by Adrian Gabriel

You buy a house that once belonged to a wizard. On the day you move in you find several surprises.
After coming home from a hair appointment you find your home has been transformed into a house
found in an old-western novel.
The stuffed animals in your daughters room start hissing at you.
Your dragon statues blow real fire.
Every time you make a phone call in your living room you hear someone elses conversation.
You stop sorting the mail when you find a letter from your dead father.

Youre in the kitchen making your favorite healing potion when you suddenly forget everything you
know.
Your walls move around all by themselves.
When reading the morning paper you see a picture of yourself. The article says you committed
murder and that your real name is Pinocchio.
You find your favorite stuffed animal actually swimming in your fish tank.
You come home to find your favorite and your most hated movie characters laughing on your couch.
When your dog scratches up the floor, your house starts to scream in pain.

After a string of burglaries in your neighborhood your furniture starts to move around when youre not
home.
You buy a house in a small neighborhood. On the day you move in you find that you have already
arrived (or at least someone who looks and acts exactly like you) and has been living in your house
for over a week.
Your razor works on everyone but you.
The pictures on your walls keep getting into loud arguments. You have to separate them or your
landlord will fine you for making too much noise.
If anything breaks inside your house it magically repairs itself. This includes people and animals.

Mythical

Digital Lake by Fernando Rodrigues

On your twentieth birthday you take over the family business. You become a siren on a beautiful and
heavily tourist-traveled island.
Dragons blow ice instead of fire.
You meet a Banshee on a public bus.
Fairies take over your backyard. They build their town hall in your BBQ and deny you
access to it.
An elf knocks on your door and demands that you give him all your shoes.
You discover a baby Kraken in your swimming pool.

An owl flies into your house and gives you a handwritten message that reads, save the Pegasus
before the world ends.
Your neighbors dragon loves to sing the blues. Loudly and at 2 a.m.
You dog-sit a three-headed dog. Unfortunately, all three heads become violently sick.
You stumble upon a group of fairies having a picnic underneath a bridge.
At a dog shelter you see a miniature unicorn waiting to be adopted.
You work in an ER as a surgeon. One of your newest patients is a gunshot victim and a Cyclops.

You find a hurt Phoenix on the side of the road.

Your dragon has to go to school to learn how to fly.
In a garden maze you hear a voice that keeps laughing at you. The voice is coming from a floating dog
that bears a striking resemblance to the Cheshire cat.
You find a basilisk trying unsuccessfully to hide in your backyard. As soon as he sees you he says,
its all been a horrible mistake, really.
When you prop yourself up against an old tree to read, the tree moves and tells you that shes
astounded by your rudeness.

Right after you die you find yourself wearing Valkryie armor. You are on a battlefield, fighting with
other Valkryie, against an army of ghosts.
While jogging you see a rainbow. You also see, to your shock, that it ends on top of a troll
guarding a small orange box.
A genie knocks on your door and tells you shes your mother and its your turn to be in the bottle.
While you are at your bank, three men storm in with guns. Decorative Gargoyles come alive to
protect you.
Aphrodite tells you, her psychiatrist, that shes having a mid-life crisis and wants to switch jobs with
the God of War.

Nature

Rocks and Water by Mellow Rapp

The lake on your property reflects every color but yellow.

The wind never blows.
All the leaves fall off the trees in June.
Whenever you are lost the trees around you point in the direction you need to go.
Clouds stay black even after storms have dissipated.
Snow turns red as it falls to the ground.
The sun and moon switch places. The moon rises during the day and the sun rises at night.

Flowers bloom during the summer and lose their petals during the fall.
You walk down your favorite nature path and are transported back to the 1800s.
The ground is covered in one foot of snow year round. In Texas.
A group of wolf cubs seek shelter in your backyard during a storm. After the storm, they line
up by your back door expecting to be fed.
It snows blue flower petals.
You love writing underneath a tree. But now every time you try to write a bird poops on
you. Repeatedly.

Instead of changing, the moon remains full every night.

Overnight forests develop a barrier that no man can cross.
Animals grow bigger and more devious than humans.
It rains constantly, but the lakes and oceans grow dry up.
Birds use themselves as a taxi service for other small animals.
A solar eclipse happens once a week.

Outside The Home

You hear rain beating down on the roof, but it isnt raining outside.
Houses tell each other family secrets.
A C130 lands in your backyard.
Your neighbors house and yard are always wet, but the city is in a drought.
While washing your car it starts to complain about your neighbors cat.
Looking out your window you see a tree full of birds. The birds are having a meeting.
Every time you leave your driveway you get a flat tire.

Instead of your car, you find a cow in your garage.

You wish you had a pool in your backyard. The next day your backyard is flooded.
A tornado destroys your dogs outside pen but nothing else.
Whenever people walk past you they have the urge to stop and talk to you. And you cant get them to
stop talking.
Robins take over your roof.
Severe storms like tornados and ice storms always go around your town. Scientists and government
officials quarantine your town until they figure out how to replicate this effect.

School

Crayons in The Sun by Pamela Hodson

At a parent-teacher conference a parent and teacher get into a yelling match about pencils.
You freeze time right before a volleyball slams into your face.
At the science fair, 100 tarantulas set themselves free.
Your child stays at home sick. When you call the school to report it, they say your child is already in
class.
To your horror the pig you are about to dissect stands up and jumps off the table.
A school uses real babies instead of dolls for their education class.

A fire alarm goes off when its hailing outside.

The schools garage always smells like roses.
During gym class your sweat turns purple.
You throw up every time you see a school bus.
You show up to school and find that it has been replaced by a graveyard.
Your school has a bring your pet to school day. A student brings a flying monkey.

The TV in your classroom starts to broadcast live, horrific events that arent actually happening.
After a very bright pink light, no one can leave the room or hall that they are currently in.
No ones locker will close.
All your teachers show up to school either bald or with long, long hair.
All the desks disappear.
Everyone shows up to school (including the teachers) wearing pajamas except you.

Your desk starts to levitate at the most inopportune moment.

On your first day of class you are the first to arrive to the classroom. When you step inside you meet
the class mascota flying squirrel that is actually flying.
Your homeroom teacher is invisible.
Your college professors assistants are all gnomes.
You swear that the reason why you fall asleep in class is because your teacher hypnotizes you.
Your teachers dog (who comes to each class) can read your mind.

Time/Activation

Clock Face by Rainbowsend

For 24 hours everyone you know calls you by the wrong name.
At a carnival you are given a gift. You can turn invisible for one day of your life. The catch is you
have five seconds to decide which day you want to turn invisible.
When you turn 13 you are granted one wish. You dont realize that as soon as your wish is fulfilled
you will die.
For an entire day whenever you talk you unwillingly end each sentence with punch me in the face.
For a week the sun doesnt shine.
For a month your hair wont dry.

For 24 hours everyone on the planet forgets how to do something vitally important (put on clothes,
drive cars/planes, talk, etc.).
For 4 hours you can speak any language.
You cant get the alphabet song out of your headfor a year.
For 36 hours (to the second) you win every game you play.
Every Wednesday whenever you see the color green you growl.
For one day water turns yellow.

The day after you die, you wake up on a Hawaiian beach covered in fur.
Every time you hear your favorite song all your hair stands straight up.
Whenever you make a phone call all you hear is a ticking clock.
For an entire week no one on your block can fall asleep.
You always get severely sick on the fourth of every month.
You are given the gift of being able to speed up or slow down time. But whenever you use it you lose
a vitally important memory.

You can time travel. But all the places you travel to are void of people.
You blackout frequently. A wood nymph appears and tells you she can stop the blackouts, but her
help comes at a price.
Every year on your birthday you receive someone elses memories.
Every time you see a pocket watch in a store window you have to buy it.
You have a meeting with the three fates. You are going to try and convince them that your sisters life
is worth saving.
When you turn 18 you have the feeling that time is running out. But you dont know why.

Transit

Bright Eyes by Keith Lewis

On a trip you realize that every vehicle you pass, you are the driver.
While driving to work a voice screams turn left.
A stoplight turns white.
You have to deliver a pizza to a home that is in the middle of a maze.
At a stoplight you watch a man in the car beside you. Soon you suspect that he is controlling the
stoplight.
On your walk a streetlight shatters at the same time three police cars surround you.

Everywhere you go you see someone who looks exactly like you, mimicking every move you make.
On your daily dogwalk you find the old expression step on a crack, break your mothers back is not
only true, but that it also works on any mothers in the area.
While on a trans-Atlantic flight the person in the isle seat next to you tells you that you are going to
murder someone on this flight and that hes here to stop you.
You forget how to drive. In the middle of a Nascar race.
A rabbit starts to follow you when you take your morning run.

You can travel anywhere you want to go in a flash as long as you are holding a picture of that place.
A yellow bus follows you to work.
Your flying carpet stalls when you are well into the air.
The Transformer Ironhide is in your driveway.
When you are at the top of the Ferris Wheel you see something you really shouldnt have.
Your car doesnt like to work. Every morning you have to bribe it just to start.

Work

While talking to a co-worker you complain about the train that cuts you off everyday. The co-worker
informs you that there are no train tracks in the city.
You show up to work to find your building missing.
Before can enter your work building you have to persuade the doors to open.
Youre hired to babysit a pair of newborn dragons.
Youve just been hired to work in a department store. Once on the job you find that all your managers
are ghosts.
Your boss arrives to work late. His car is encased in green slime.

You tape record your work notes. On playback you are surprised to hear yourself speaking in a
language of growls and squeaks.
While at work your computer tells you that your boss is an idiot. Your boss overhears.
You work for the school system. Whenever you attempt to drive a bus, no matter how big or small, it
breaks down.
On your lunch you wish your cubicle had a window. When you get back from lunch a wrecking ball
takes out an entire wall of your cubicle.
Gremlins infiltrate your office building and wreak havoc on all electrical equipment.

Whenever you add a new business appointment to your calendar, the calendar lectures you about the
consequences of all work and no play.
When you arrive at work you realize that no one can see you.
Your new co-worker is a ghost whos pretending to be human.
Every Monday your troll co-worker steals all your office supplies.
You work at a doctors office. Your new co-worker is a Banshee.
You work at home. Your house feels neglected, so when you sit down to work your house devises
ways to distract you.

Other

Every time you laugh it rains.

Hell is heaven where you cant touch anything.
You seriously think you have found a time machine in your friends attic.
As you pass by a basketball court you decide to join in the game that has already started. After the
game you discover that you cant leave the court.
Your subconscious, conscious, and body develop personalities that argue non-stop in your head.
A lighthouse is built in the middle of a city, but only a few people can see it.

Every time you see the color blue you laugh hysterically.
Glass shatters every time you enter a room.
You hear a wolf whistle every time you pass running children.
You turn color blind only when driving.
A childs voice starts narrating your life.
While in the middle of a routine workout in the ocean you forget how to swim.
You find the secret on how to walk on water in a book in a used bookshop. The owner of the shop
will only sell you the book on one condition