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I spent years hating writing prompts that started with "You find a door where there wasn't one." Then a guy at a bus stop changed my mind.
I was waiting for the 42 bus near the library downtown, and this older dude next to me was scribbling in a notebook. I glanced over and saw he was writing a story based on that exact prompt. I laughed and said I always found those prompts too cheesy. He just looked at me and said "The door isn't the point. The point is why you notice it." Then he showed me his page. He had written a scene where a guy finds a door in his hallway that leads to his childhood bedroom, except his childhood bedroom burned down 20 years ago. That clicked for me. The prompt is just a starting point, not the whole story. Has anyone else had a prompt they hated that turned out okay after someone explained it different?
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miaprice4m ago
The "door to nowhere" still feels lazy to me, it needs way more setup to work.
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Makes me think of that door in my grandma's garage that went nowhere.
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