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My worst writing week ever started with a broken coffee maker

Last Tuesday, my trusty coffee machine gave out right before a big deadline. I had three short stories due for a contest by Friday, and my brain just would not work without that first cup. I tried writing at the library, but the silence was too loud, you know? By Wednesday, I was so stuck I almost gave up. Then I remembered a tip from an old writing blog: use a random object as a prompt. I grabbed a weird blue button from my junk drawer and wrote a whole page about where it came from. That silly exercise broke the block, and I finished all three stories by Thursday night. Has anyone else used a random physical thing to kickstart a story when they were totally stuck?
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2 Comments
ivanbrown
ivanbrown2d ago
Keep a small box of odd trinkets on your desk for exactly this kind of emergency.
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keith116
keith1162d ago
My junk drawer is basically a graveyard of dead pens and expired coupons, so that button trick sounds way more productive.
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