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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37367
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37367
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Any "what if" scenario is where your creativity must come to bear. It is for you, as a writer, to consider the questions you ask. The first step is indeed asking the questions. Then you find an answer that seems good to you.

An important element is **being internally consistent**. The rules of your fantasy are your playground, but they cannot contradict each other.

Now, to answer big questions, I find two things make the task easier:

- Break the large question into smaller questions
- Create more of the world than goes onto the page.

For your example, while your character does't know what happened during those two years, nor that two years are missing, you should know what happened. Has she made some new acquaintance? Has she bought new clothes that are now in her wardrobe? Got rid of something that she now can't find? Has her clothes size changed? What about her friends? What about technology / fashion - has it moved on? What about newspapers / calendar / anything that lists the date?

And so on. Ask questions, and they will guide you. Some of those questions would lend you information that would end up on the page, others would merely inform your writing, without ever showing up. Knowing more, considering possibilities and implications, is what allows you to make your world both interesting and internally consistent. And if it is internally consistent.

Original score: 13