I finally hit 50,000 words on my novel draft after hearing a kid in a coffee shop

I was at The Daily Grind in Austin last week and overheard a teenager telling her friend about a character who could only tell the truth on Tuesdays. It made me realize I'd been overcomplicating my own magic system. I went home and just wrote the simplest version, and the words finally started flowing. Has anyone else had a random conversation unlock a block like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakotawells28d ago

Wait, did that barista actually rant about gnomes or did craig.parker just add to the garden gnome stuff because it's a weird coincidence? The gnome thing seems like a total non-sequitur to the original post about writing blocks, but maybe I'm missing the connection. Are you saying overhearing random stuff like gnome conspiracies actually sparked ideas for your novel too?

craig.parker3mo ago

Overheard a barista ranting about gnomes once.

noahs823mo ago

That whole garden gnome thing got weird online a few years back. People were convinced they moved on their own at night. Read a bunch of forum posts where folks swore they'd come home to find them facing a different way. Probably just bored neighbors messing around, but it made people nuts.