A stranger's writing prompt changed my whole plot twist

I was killing time at a bus stop on Division Street in Chicago when this older guy handed me a napkin with one line on it: "The mailman knows what the therapist won't say." He said he collects weird sentences from strangers and writes stories from them. That napkin sat in my pocket for 3 days before I used it as a prompt for a short piece, and it turned into the best thing I've written all year. Have you ever gotten a random prompt from a stranger that actually worked?

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juliashah8d ago

Did it actually work, or did you just do the work yourself? I've gotten random lines from strangers before, and most of them are just noise. The good ones only work because you already had a story half-formed in your head. That napkin probably just woke up something you were already circling. I see it less as a gift and more as a nudge. The real craft is still yours.