Of course a lot of stories are inspired by what-if. But I'm thinking of a specific what-if. "If a team of ninjas crashed through the skylight and started taking hostages, I would join them; that's how much I hate this job." Or "What if, in the course of my trying to sell people on sketchy cell-phone plans, I was also taking messages from secret agents, and passing them on to other agents?"
I've got one example: Falling Down. Joel Schumacher was stuck in gridlock, and started wondering, "What if I just got out and walked? And what if this was the last straw for someone?" Okay, that's a movie, not a book, but that's the kind of thing I'm looking for.
by Charlotte_Braun