Finally cracked the opening scene for my fantasy novel during my lunch break at a Panera in Austin

After staring at a blank page for three weeks, I overheard some guy at the next table complaining about his printer jamming and it gave me the exact conflict I needed for my first chapter, so has anyone else found inspiration in the most random places?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_kim10d ago

Heard my friend got a plot twist from a spilled coffee stain on a napkin.

king.eric10d ago

Used to roll my eyes at those "I got my story from a dream/coffee stain/walnut" posts. Thought it was just people being quirky for attention. But then I was sitting at a diner last month and a waitress spilled syrup in this weird pattern that looked like a map. Took a picture of it, started writing a whole scene about a secret meeting drawn in a diner's syrup spill. The napkin thing is basically the same idea. Sometimes inspiration just smacks you in the face from the dumbest places.

the_tessa10d ago

The real trick is noticing when life hands you something usable. Most people just clean up the syrup spill and move on.