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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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beth_stone4mo ago
@keith116 Yeah I gotta say I'm with you on this one... three short stories for a contest and you're acting like it's life or death. A coffee maker breaks and suddenly the whole world stops? Just go buy a cheap one at the thrift store for five bucks. And @ivanbrown keeps a box of trinkets on his desk? That's just asking for clutter.
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keith1166mo 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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