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Saw a prompt about a haunted vending machine, now I can't stop thinking about it
Someone posted a prompt last Tuesday about a vending machine that only gives out items people have lost. Not forgot, lost. Like a kid's mitten from 1987 or a wedding ring. It sounded dumb at first, 30 minutes of scrolling later I had 4 pages of notes. The best stories come from one weird rule you don't explain. Has anyone else found a prompt that just sticks in your head for days, even after you write 3 different versions of it?
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stella_murray1mo ago
That lost items rule is gold because it opens so many doors without you having to explain anything. Like what happens when someone pays with a coin they lost as a kid, or when the machine spits out something that belonged to someone who died. I wrote one where a guy gets his dead brother's watch back and the machine just hums like nothing happened, no ghost, no lesson, just the watch. The lack of explanation makes it creepier every time you think about it. That's the trick, the rule does the heavy lifting so you can focus on the human part.
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