Took me three days to figure out a prompt for a character who can't lie

I wanted a story about a person who physically can't tell a lie, but every idea felt like a bad Jim Carrey movie. I spent a whole afternoon just writing and deleting opening lines. Finally, I tried flipping it: what if the character is a diplomat? That simple switch took the idea from silly to something with real tension. Has anyone else gotten stuck on a simple concept for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily5111mo agoTop Commenter

That diplomat flip is genius. Makes me wonder about a character who can't lie but works in advertising.

derek_burns1mo ago

One of my old coworkers had a friend who tried this as a bit. He couldn't lie, so he'd just say the most brutally honest thing about a product. He once told a client their new shampoo smelled like a wet dog that rolled in something dead. Lost the account but the client called him back a week later because the honesty stuck with them. Now he has his own agency where he just points out everything wrong with people's products and they pay him for it.