Noticed something weird at a writers meetup in Portland last week

I went to this casual creative writing group at a coffee shop downtown and every single person who shared a prompt started with 'a man walks into a bar' or something similar. Out of 12 prompts, 8 were about strangers meeting in a random place like a bus stop or a laundromat. Has anyone else noticed we all default to strangers meeting as a go-to, or was it just that one night?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamiesingh1mo ago

Ha! Sounds like everyone in that room read the SAME writing prompt list from 2015. I swear if I see one more laundromat meet-cute I'll lose my MIND. Did anyone at least have the guts to start with "a woman walks into a library and judges everyone's taste in books"? That'd be a twist. Maybe next time you should bring a prompt about two people who ALREADY know each other and hate it.

parker_bailey1mo ago

Drove past a laundromat the other day and actually laughed out loud thinking about @jamiesingh’s post, like every single person in there is just waiting for their cue to drop a witty line about fabric softener. Idk, maybe the real twist is someone just stands there silently until the dryer buzzes.