“You see but you do not observe.”
I sat at a coffee shop with my notebook for a little while to
day. As I scribbled it occurred to me that I'm not in the habit of people
watching and I do not observe half of what I should. I noticed the different groups,
couples chatting, three or four friends at a table, loners with their
laptops; here for caffeine and free wifi. I wrote this down but little else
about them, sketching outlines but no more. Maybe there is enough background
there to set the stage for a scene or short story, but there are no personal details.
The little things that make people real are missing. One guy in his twenties
had red ear buds in as he focused on his black laptop. Another person with a
laptop, a young woman, has tea instead of coffee, she puts honey in it, I know
because she was fixing hers at the same time I was. I remember someone had on
black and white converse, but I don’t know if there were more sweatshirts or
jackets, purses or book bags.
I never have been
much of a people person, maybe that’s why I never thought about it before. But
really how can I describe the shadow figures in my mind when I have never practiced
describing the living breathing characters all around me?
Maybe it’s time for another 30 day challenge: watching
and writing down something about a person or people every day. As Sherlock says
[BBC’s ‘Sherlock,’]
“You see but you do not observe.” Maybe it’s time I started.
