I was at a coffee shop in Portland last week and overheard a conversation that gave me a new way to start stories.

I was trying to write and got stuck, like always. At the next table, two people were talking about a weird thing they saw: a person walking a cat on a leash, but the cat was leading them to a specific fire hydrant every time. One of them said, "That's not a pet, that's a detective on a case." It hit me right then. I always start with the character or the plot. Now I try to start with a single, strange, concrete image like that and build the world out from it. It makes the prompt feel real from the first sentence. What's the oddest little detail you've ever used as a starting point for a story?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly_hill891mo ago

Okay that's a REALLY cool way to break the blank page. So you see this one weird thing and just...explode it into a whole world. I'm stuck on the detective cat now. Did you actually write that story? What happened next with that image, like did the hydrant whisper clues or was it a secret meeting spot? I have to know how you built it out.

mitchell.daniel1mo agoMost Upvoted

lol i wish i wrote the full story. honestly i just got stuck on the cat's little trench coat and the idea of a fire hydrant snitch. it kinda fizzled out after that.

cooper.nathan5d ago

Honestly I get where Mitchell is coming from, sometimes the spark just dies. For me the fun is in the first weird idea, not always building the whole thing. Trying to force a story from one image feels like work, and I do enough of that already. I'd rather just enjoy the funny picture of a cat in a trench coat and move on.