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Unpopular opinion: a stranger's bad breakup note taught me more about prompts than any book
I was waiting on a pickup order at a diner in Toledo two weeks ago and the guy next to me was scribbling on a napkin, turns out he was rewriting a breakup text for the 4th time and wanted it to sound less angry. He said something simple that stuck with me, that a good prompt should feel like a locked door you really want to peek behind. So now when I get stuck I write down one line as if someone else left it for me to find, like "the note was under the windshield wiper and it wasn't for me," and I go from there instead of staring at a blank page. Honestly it works way better than forcing a whole plot out of nothing. Curious if anyone else builds prompts from found objects or overheard stuff instead of pictures and quotes.
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rodriguez.mia5h ago
found objects beat blank pages every time. i keep a note on my phone of weird things i overhear at laundromats and bus stops, stuff like "she said the dog knew before i did." that one line gave me a whole story about a lady who trusts her beagle more than her husband. the trick is the line has to feel like it's missing something, not like it's complete. a locked door beats an open field when you're trying to write.
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