Hot take: My best story came from a prompt that totally bombed at first

I was at a local writer's meetup in Austin and the host gave us a prompt about a character finding a key in their pocket. I spent 20 minutes writing a boring scene about a guy just going to a locksmith, lol. Then I flipped it, made the key open a door in his own house he never knew was there, and the whole story changed. That one rewrite turned into a 5,000 word short story that I actually got published. Has anyone else ever saved a bad start by just changing one big thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

evan_anderson1mo ago

Sounds like you just got lucky that time.

robinson.quinn1mo ago

You think luck explains a perfect three point shot from my driveway, @evan_anderson? I practiced that exact bank shot off the side of the garage for two months. The net still smells like failure and old basketball.