The answer could be as simple as think weird.

Or, to be more accurate, get used to looking at normal, every-day situations, and then asking yourself: “what if?”

And once you start writing, continue to ask what if. It can open up all kinds of creative ideas, mid-draft.

An Example (Full Disclosure but without Spoilers)

As I began the first draft of Dissident (book two in the Tracker Trilogy), I wanted to provide readers with a thumbnail sketch of what the Enclave looked like. At the same time, I had committed myself to the “third person limited” approach.

And so, I created Mateo Reyes. He’s a shopkeeper who works in the literal shadow of the Enclave’s heavily-guarded walls. Mateo’s role was to give Amos Morgan (the POV protagonist) a guided tour of:

1. The physical parameters/description of the Enclave,
2. The ferocity of the guards protecting it, and
3. The societal milieu that had evolved around its borders.

Here’s the full disclosure:

After pantsing my way through Tracker (Book 1), I’d created a bullet-point outline for the second book. Mateo was a character of convenience. He allowed me to describe the Enclave and set the scene through Amos’s eyes, but Mateo was never intended to go much beyond that. I had a vague notion of him possibly reappearing later in a minor scene. Mateo was a one-chapter wonder, important for the purpose I had in mind, but nothing more.

Until I was about to wrap up the first draft of the first chapter. I was sitting in a crowded coffeeshop when I was suddenly ambushed by a what-if?

I promised there would be no spoilers. But suffice it to say that Mateo became a pivotal character in Dissident and later in Scorpion. (He messed up my outline in the process, but I’ve forgiven him.)

When your valley’s on fire, ask yourself “what if …”

The past two summers in British Columbia have been dominated by record-breaking wildfires. A side-effect has been the dense smoke which has blanketed our city for weeks on end. The sun, when it breaks through, looks eerie, unnatural, almost alien.

Wait a minute. What if …

What if there’s another explanation for the climate crisis? One that’s scientifically observable, but ultimately originating from a sinister intelligence outside our universe? What if the environmental malaise was only a symptom of something far worse?

I went home and scribbled in my notebook, “The unnatural color of the sky caught Jaco’s eye the moment he stepped outside. The saffron-tinged sunlight threw everything — clouds, buildings, foliage — into sharp, brassy relief.”

That’s the story behind my inspiration for Darkwood. Nothing more profound than noticing a smoky sky and asking a simple what if?

The caste-based society on another world; the forgotten prophecies of a religion based in Nature; a TV reporter’s investigation into a government coverup; the sudden appearance of a terrified teenager fleeing from unspeakable Darkness … well, all that came later.

But it proves the equation: What if + think weird = speculative fiction.