Just hit 1000 words on a story I thought was dead

I opened my writing folder last night, just to clean it up, and saw an old prompt file from six months ago. On a whim, I read the first paragraph and got a new idea. I started typing and didn't stop for an hour. When I looked up, the word count was over a thousand. It's not much, but it's the first time I've gotten past the opening scene in months. Has anyone else brought a prompt back from the dead like that?

3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

3 Comments

keithhall6mo ago

Maybe it's just me but I never really trust those sudden bursts of writing. Every time I've done that, the idea fizzles out again after a day or two. It feels more like finding leftover energy in a dead battery than actually fixing the story. I've learned to be pretty skeptical of my own excitement over a single good session. The real test is if you can open the file again tomorrow and still want to work on it.

10

drew_park6mo ago

My writing bursts have the lifespan of a fruit fly.

2

felix1476mo ago

My old laptop from 2018 has a folder called "zombies" for exactly this. I'll open a dead doc, change the font to something stupid like Comic Sans, and just mess around without pressure. That font trick alone has saved three projects I swore were gone for good. It tricks my brain into thinking it's not real work.

3