Found a strange writing prompt notebook in a coffee shop in Portland

I was at a place called The Daily Grind on 3rd Avenue yesterday and saw a notebook left on a table. It was full of writing prompts, but the weird part was every single one was about doors that shouldn't be opened. Like, 'You find a door in your basement that wasn't there yesterday' or 'A door appears every time you tell a lie'. There were over 50 of them, all just about doors. It felt like someone's very specific obsession. Has anyone else found a prompt collection that was stuck on one idea like that? I'm curious if it's a common exercise.

2 comments

2 Comments

black.beth8d ago

Honestly, that sounds like a focused creative project, not an obsession at all. Writers often drill down on one theme to explore it from every angle. Having fifty prompts on doors means the person was building a whole world, not just being random. It is probably more useful than a notebook with fifty different, unconnected ideas. That kind of deep focus is how you find a truly original story.

troy_fox8d ago

Oh man, that's so true. I got stuck once trying to write a big story and it was going nowhere. So I just started listing every kind of key I could think of, like rusty keys, key cards, even a key made of ice. It felt silly at first, but then all those keys started to fit into the story in weird ways I never planned. That single list built out the whole magic system for me.