Am I the only one who got stuck on a prompt about a 'cursed object' for a week?

I was trying to write a short story based on a prompt about a family heirloom that brings bad luck. I thought it would be easy, but I kept writing myself into a corner. Every idea felt cliche, like the locket that makes people sick or the clock that stops when someone dies. I must have started over five times. What finally broke it was a comment from my buddy Mike, who said, 'What if the curse isn't on the object, but on the person trying to get rid of it?' That one question flipped everything. I spent the next three days rewriting from that angle, and the story finally clicked. Has anyone else had a prompt that seemed simple but took a weird turn to solve?

2 comments

2 Comments

valthomas10d ago

Ever get stuck on something so simple it makes you question your whole hobby? I spent a month trying to describe a haunted house without using the words "creaky" or "cold." Ended up writing about the smell of the air freshener the new owners kept spraying to cover up the scent of old flowers. Sometimes you just need that one dumb little shift to make it work. Mike's a genius for that.

wren80610d ago

Wait, you spent a whole week on that? That's some serious dedication. Mike's idea is a total game changer though. It's wild how one small twist can unlock everything.