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Saw a writing prompt about 'write from an object's perspective' and thought it was silly at first
I gave it a shot during a 15 minute freewrite last week using a rusty padlock in my shed. The story about it waiting 6 years to be opened actually turned into something I want to expand. Has anyone else found a prompt they expected to hate that ended up working?
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king.aaron1mo ago
I used to roll my eyes at those prompts too, but that rusty padlock idea honestly sounds like it has real legs. I'm with you on changing my mind about them now.
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rowanharris1mo ago
A rusty padlock has way more mileage than most people give it credit for. Write the scene first, then go back and drop in three details about the lock like the way the keyhole feels when the key slides in or the specific shade of rust flaking off. That trick helped me salvage half a dozen dead stories where I was just staring at a blank page. Keep the description tight and don't explain why the lock matters until later. Readers will latch onto it harder than you think.
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