Russ and I just got back from the Mall, where we have been “people watching.” It’s a lot of fun, noting trends, seeing what people are wearing, trying to guess what their stories might be. What’s amazing to me is that no matter where you are (at least it makes no difference if you are in South Florida or West Alabama) you still see the same kinds of people.
The most interesting to me are the Goth kids. They kind of remind me of Mary and Joey when they were younger. I kept saying things like “See the girl with the buttons all over her purse? That was Mary,” and “Joey had a friend who looked just like that.” In fact, I saw a kid that reminded me a lot of Joey, tall and thin, but his hair was bright red, like Ron Weasley’s. And apparently kids are still wearing those really big, really baggy pants that used to piss their dad off so much.
Anyway, I proposed to Russ that we get ourselves a couple of marble notebooks and go up to the Mall to “people watch” and write down our observations. I also think it would be a neat writer’s exercise to pick a person and write a quick little story about them, maybe a drabble. Keeps the mind active, keeps the creative juices flowing. You never know where you might find inspiration.
It is fun to people watch, but what creative purpose does writing down your observations serve? ^_^
Don’t you sometimes see someone or something that makes you think, “I would love to work that into a story”? But if you don’t write it down, you’ll forget all about it. But if you write down these observations, it will help you remember later, when you are writing.
Case in point: How many times have we been talking about something, and a question or issue has been raised, and I’ve said, “You know, that would be a great topic for a school research paper!” I know I must have said that at least 88 times, but of course now at this moment I can’t even remember a single one of those ideas to use as an example. BUT if I had been writing them down as I thought of them, today I would have a lengthy list of great ideas for research papers.
So…this notebook could serve as a storehouse of great ideas, when the brain is not up to the task.