Switched from random word lists to using a single object for a week of prompts

I used to just pull five random words from a jar each morning. Last week, I picked a single thing from my kitchen, a pepper grinder, and wrote a different story about it every day. The second way gave me a detective story, a sci-fi piece, and a family drama, all way more connected and deep. Has anyone else tried focusing on one item to get a bunch of different stories?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wendy2mo ago

My friend did that with a coffee mug. Got a whole ghost story out of it.

riverh491mo ago

Oh man, my cousin did that with an old radio once!

charles_young921mo ago

I always thought the random word method was the only way to go. For three years, I had a shoebox full of cut-up magazine words. Then I got stuck on a single rusted hinge from my garden shed for a week. It gave me a western showdown, a breakup story, and a weird fairy tale about a gate that wouldn't close. The constraint forced way more creativity than the randomness ever did.