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My writing group argued over a prompt about a character finding a single key

Half wanted a magical realism story, the other half wanted a gritty crime thriller. I picked the crime angle and wrote about a locksmith in Chicago finding it in a dead man's coat, which actually helped me figure out my plot's middle act. What's a prompt that forced you to pick a genre and run with it?
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3 Comments
nina_hall48
Picking the crime angle for that key prompt was smart. Mine was 'a phone that only receives calls from the past' and I went full sci-fi horror instead of romance.
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nina_taylor
Actually my prompt was a lost wallet, not a crime thing... but @nina_hall48, a phone from the past sounds way creepier.
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kellygrant
Hold up, the magical realism take on that key is way more interesting. A key that opens any door but only once, or one that unlocks memories instead of rooms. The crime thing is just a dead body and a mystery, that's been done. The weird, subtle magic is where you find a real story.
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