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That time a random stranger fixed my story ending at a diner in Omaha
I was stuck on a horror short for months, the ending just felt flat. Over eggs at a truck stop in Omaha, this old guy saw me scribbling and said "just let the monster win for once." I tried it and suddenly the whole thing clicked, got published in a small zine 3 weeks later. Any of you ever get a killer idea from a complete stranger?
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grantthomas4d ago
It's wild how often the best ideas come from people who aren't even trying to help. That old guy probably heard a hundred stories in his lifetime and just knew what was missing. Strangers cut through all our overthinking and get to the heart of it because they're not attached to our work.
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lisa_grant1d ago
Right, because they're not tangled up in all the history and little details we can't let go of. A stranger hears the core problem, not all the reasons why it can't be solved. Like that time a friend was complaining about her job for an hour, and some guy at the bar just said "so quit, boring people don't fix boring jobs." Cut right through everything. We spend days agonizing over a color scheme and a neighbor's kid says "the blue one hurts my eyes" and suddenly it's obvious. Fresh eyes don't carry our baggage.
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