Had a note on my phone for almost a YEAR that just said "guy finds a wallet with a photo of himself in it" and I kept building on it. Added a backstory, a twist, a whole second act. Then one night I actually wrote the thing out and it was dead in two paragraphs. The idea only worked as a mystery in my head, once I tried to explain the photo the whole thing fell apart. Deleted the note and felt weirdly lighter after. Sometimes the note is better than the story ever could be.

Man, that old school "speed over everything" mindset is exactly how you end up back on the same wall doing tear-out for free. A dry brick sucks the water right out of the mortar, so the joint never cures right and just crumbles.

Aw man, I did that with a ship manifest once.