Ran into a retired writer at the coffee shop on 5th Street

This older guy saw me scribbling in a notebook and asked what I was working on. I told him I was stuck on a fantasy prompt about a world without shadows. He just laughed and said 'try killing your main character on page 3, see where it goes.' I actually tried it for a flash piece and it totally unblocked me. Anyone else ever get weird advice from a stranger that actually worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

drew8051d ago

Is it bad that my first thought was "well at least my characters are already dead on the inside?" But seriously, that advice is gold. I had a guy at a bus stop tell me to write my ending first and work backwards, which felt backwards at first but actually helped me stop worrying about where the story was going. Weird how some random person can crack the code your own brain couldn't figure out.

the_wren1d agoMost Upvoted

Nah that bus stop wisdom actually makes sense tho. I tried it once with a short story and it was wild how much easier everything snapped into place once I knew where I was heading. Like suddenly all my scenes had a purpose instead of just wandering around.