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The old guy at the diner who called out my writing habits
Back in 2018 I was sitting at a Denny's in Ohio, scribbling ideas on a napkin for a short story. An old man at the next booth asked what I was doing, then said "You're typing too fast in your head, slow down and feel the words first." He told me about how he used to write letters to his wife during the war, one page at a time with a pencil. I still write my first drafts by hand because of that. Have you ever had a stranger give you advice that actually changed how you work?
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iris_thomas851d ago
Did you ever end up writing anything based on that napkin, or did it just get thrown out with the coffee cups? It's one thing to get good advice from a stranger, but another to actually act on it and finish something. I'm curious if that talk pushed you to complete the story or if it was more about the process moving forward.
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joseph_green131d ago
Ngl that napkin story pushed me to finish a short story I'd been stuck on for months.
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Oh man, @joseph_green13 knows what I'm talking about. When you said "just thrown out with the coffee cups" that's exactly what I was afraid of happening, ha. Actually I did end up writing that napkin story into a full rough draft a few months later, but it sat in a drawer for two years before I pulled it back out. The advice was more about the process moving forward because now I always do a first draft by hand before typing it up. That old guy was right about slowing down, it makes a huge difference in how the words come out.
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