My writing group in Portland dared me to write a story where the main character is a sentient potato.

I got stuck for a week until I decided to just write the whole thing in a single, 3-hour sprint using only the notes app on my phone. It somehow unlocked the weirdest, most fun plot I've written all year. Anyone else find that imposing a weird, arbitrary rule actually gets the words flowing?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor.phoenix2mo ago

Oh totally, it's like our brains need a puzzle to solve before they'll actually work. I get the same thing trying to cook dinner with only what's left in the fridge, or fixing something with the wrong tool. The limit forces you to get creative in a way having all the options just doesn't. It shuts off that part of your mind that's always judging and second-guessing. You stop trying to make it good and just start making it, which is where the real fun stuff happens.

lee_grant972mo ago

That "single, 3-hour sprint using only the notes app" thing is a game changer. I had a story that just wouldn't move. So I gave myself a rule: every sentence had to start with "The". Sounds dumb, but it forced me to stop overthinking. The words just started coming out. The plot got weird fast. Sometimes you just need a dumb box to think outside of.