“…don’t you see things in passing that make you wonder, “What’s all that about?” A couple quarreling in a restaurant, a man running down a crowded sidewalk, a woman weeping as she hails a cab—we see all these fragments of other people’s life stories as we pursue our own….imagine what led to that moment and what might happen next…”
KILLER HEELS, p. 47 (St. Martin Paperbacks, 2004) by Sheryl J. Anderson
Being a keen observer is a writer’s most basic tool. Some are born with the talent. But if it is not a skill in your arsenal, don’t worry. It can be developed.
I find it helpful to pick a public space, go in with a notebook and pen, and then write whatever you see. No filter. No thought about why or what is happening. Just as a camera or video might record the action. Write the movements. Write the colors. Write the voices and words and dialogue. Write the smells. Write the temperature and texture. And do this for a timed session—starting slow with 5 minute efforts and increasing to 10, 15 and 20 minute sessions.
It helps if you can develop the talent of making your eyes go out of focus. Or take off glasses (or put them on) in case anyone suddenly feels spied upon or inquires what you’re looking at. But the benefits are real and worth the risk of exposure.
If you are too shy to do this, pick a movie or a video, and watch it doing the same thing. Or go to a live theatre performance and detail every swish of the cloak, the movement of an arm, the tilt of a head. How the lines are delivered. And write it all down.
And with these observations, you have created story clay.
Then it is time to use your imagination to slather it with the water of imagination, work it, sculpt it, and turn it into art. A new story awaits your creation.