Introduction

Questions have been given a bad rap, why’s that?

Is it because we think of them in the wrong way or we’ve viewed them from the wrong point of view?

So, is it our viewpoint that’s lacking or is it our decision to look deeper into things ourselves?

As you know, we can go on and on with questions.

They’re one of the omniscient things in our universe, and yet, many of us don’t use them to our advantage.

The Power of Questions

How can questions help us write better?

The first power of questions lies in their ability to sneak outside the box and yet, remain hidden from view.

By posing a question out of the box, you can hide its power by saying that you’re brainstorming.

In a sense, the whole purpose of brainstorming is about breaking out of the box and seeing new ideas, new concepts, and new connections.

In its smallest form, brainstorming is like questioning something with questions in a quest to find a new way of questioning.

When you’re deep into a story, questions will branch off into better insights and more organic plotting.

From the best questions, your story will build into a deeper psychological truth and if it gets deep enough, it’ll be considered to have mythological power.

So, spend more time questioning than answering and soon, your stories will sparkle with a zest you haven’t seen in your lifetime.

The Basics

Now back to the basics.

Ok, this is what we got.

Questions and answers.

Opposite ends, but which one’s worth looking into.

My previous article dealt with the power of questions, now let’s look at the weakness of answers. Straight up, answers are low budget, a waste of time.

They comprise the following ideas:

• One stop shop
• Linear thinking
• The tradition of being traditional
• One path to know everything
• One way of living your life
• One viewpoint

One, one, one…

These are the results of answers at work.

We gotta put more time in and seek a higher purpose than chasing the same boring ideals.

Social Conditioning

But we’ve been conditioned to follow these ideals and continue chasing them well into adulthood.

In class, you’re told that you get better grades because you know the answers.

No kids are given good grades for asking the right questions, they are ignored and told to seek answers, not questions.

But all alone, it’s the questions that push us to find what we’re really seeking.

When our hearts are chasing a goal, it’s the questions that propel us into deeper territories of the mind.

And inside the mind, questions are the backbones of forming new neural networks, new ways of viewing the world.

Conclusion

So why do we seek answers?

Some will argue our selfishness, some will say our ego, and others will argue our incessant need to know.

Regardless of what you decide, it’s obvious that answers are placeholders that bind you to a certain path.

With questions, your mind opens to new paths and new roads to discover and pursue.

So, what’s your question?