A guy at the library gave me the strangest writing prompt

I was at the main branch downtown last Tuesday, just looking for a quiet spot to work on my outline. This older man, maybe in his 70s, sat down across from me, put his coffee cup on the table, and just stared for a minute. Then he leaned forward and said, 'Write about a man who is slowly turning into a parking meter. Not the whole thing, just the arm. His right arm is the one that takes the coins.' He said it totally straight, like he was giving me the weather. I just mumbled 'thanks' and he got up and walked away. I haven't stopped thinking about it. It's so specific and weird, it kind of unlocked something. What's the most oddly specific prompt someone has ever given you out of the blue?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordancoleman23d ago

Hold on, I'm gonna push back here. That parking meter thing sounds like a waste of a perfectly good idea, not a clever prompt at all. If you're gonna write a story about body horror or transformation, why limit it to one weird arm when you could go way bigger and more interesting? Seems like that old guy was just messing with people, and now we're all overthinking his random coffee shop rambling.

gray_schmidt83mo agoMost Upvoted

Imagine trying to explain that arm to a doctor, @taraw16.

taraw163mo ago

That parking meter thing is genius. Makes you wonder if the guy's a retired English teacher who got tired of normal prompts. My weirdest was a barista telling me to write about a lighthouse keeper who only communicates through recipes.