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“A Good Writer is Always a People Watcher” — Walter Mosley
The material you need for writing fodder is all around you
As an avid people-watcher and writer, I find stories wherever I go. Whether in the park, at a busy shopping center, or enjoying a glass of wine in a restaurant, there’s always time to observe tales unfold.
According to Wikipedia, “People-watching or crowd-watching is the act of observing people and their interactions as a subconscious doing. It involves picking up on idiosyncrasies to try to interpret or guess another person’s story, interactions, and relationships.”
Indeed, observing how people move, their gestures, and what they do and say can provide excellent writing material. Of course, you can work from memory if you dislike people-watching, but where do your memories come from other than people-watching?
When thinking about people-watching, I note it has a voyeuristic quality that makes me uncomfortable to consider but not uncomfortable to do. There’s a stigma around invading people’s privacy by letting your eyes stray to their behaviors for too long.
But many creatives, not only writers, let their gaze run rampant when they can. Photographers, artists, sculptors, and many more artisans derive ideas from what they see. They observe everyday…
