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A barista in Seattle told me my order was 'a story with no conflict'
I was getting coffee last Tuesday and asked for my usual plain black. The barista, a woman with green hair, looked at me and said 'That's a story with no conflict.' She explained she writes in her head all day to stay sharp. She said my boring order made her think of flat characters. I paid for my coffee and left, but her words hung around. Has a random comment ever given you a whole new idea for a character?
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holly_williams2mo ago
Oh wow, that reminds me of my friend Dave. A cashier once told him his grocery cart, just bread and bananas, looked like "a still life painting of sadness." Dave ended up writing a whole short story about a man who only eats those two things while he waits for a sign to change his life.
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hugo_cooper2mo ago
Absolutely, those offhand remarks can be gold. A librarian once saw my stack of books and called it "a cry for help written in due dates." I built a whole detective character around that, a guy who only communicates through library check-out histories. What's the best random line you've ever gotten?
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Wait, a whole detective that only talks through library check-out histories? That's the most creative thing I've heard all week, @hugo_cooper you really took that librarian's jab and turned it into gold.
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