30 Day Challenge: People

 “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. 

[For more on 30 day challenges see my post  Write to be a Writer]

Writing Actively

Write: actively, brokenly, crookedly, doggedly, effectively, fantastically, gamely, hauntingly, ignorantly, Jovially, kinetically, laughingly, movingly, nervously, openly, pointedly, quickly, ravishingly, superbly, thrillingly, universally, vicariously, wonderingly, xerically, yearningly, zestfully...

And have fun with yourself 

Write to Be a Writer

You can’t be a writer if you don’t write. So if that’s not something that you do every day you need to start. Get a note book, keep it with you, use it for any little snippet or idea that comes into your head. Open a word document, start typing. Get a stack of files and save everything you write, everything you’ve ever written.

In January of 2012 I set myself to write every day. I made a rough chart and promised myself thirty days of writing. I made that goal and have only missed a couple of days since then. When I started I was using a standard notebook, now I have a small one for my purse and a six by eight that I take almost everywhere, at the very least it’s in the car. I remember going into a panic one day when I forgot my purse, solely because it left me without paper and pen. Not all my entrees are long, some are just a few words strung together or even just pared up. Sometimes I write fiction, sometimes I make notes about my day, and often I don’t make any sense.

My notebook is a way for me to keep myself writing even when I’m discouraged or to busy to do much. I may not be going very far now, but at least I know I’m moving forward as a writer every day. You see I believe that every word we write makes it easier to write. We learn to think in words, to grab hold of little things and save them for later.

Just try writing a line or more a day. It takes less than a minute and if you don’t like it no one has to see it but you. Just write something, anything. 

On the Wall Sat a Cat

Free domain photo from wikipedia

     On the back courtyard wall of a long-standing town house, sat a calico cat. She surveyed a flock of sparrows, scattered on and below a little black feeder (set there for their use,) with the detached interest of her kind. She was Cook's favorite after all, and needn't worry about catching sparrows for her supper; besides mice were much fatter and the rewards ever so much nicer. (The last time she caught a sparrow she had been jabbed severely with the broom. Whenever she caught a mouse she received a fine dish of buttermilk and the choice leavings off the humans table, they were rather wasteful creatures weren't they?) 

     Her pastime was interrupted quite abruptly when, with a beating of many small wings, the sparrows took off all together in a cloud of brown feathered bodies. The cause of this disarray continued running, completely disregarding, (as humans are wont to do,) the disturbance he had caused.

     Now what is that human kit' up to now? wondered the cat as she stretched contemplatively. With a final twitch of her tail she set off along the wall to where, in a corner behind the little wagon cook used for market goods and such, the human child had stopped.

     Curling her tail around her paws, she settled down to observe this careless intruder to her domain: He was a breathless boy of seven or eight with sun faded brown hair and a jam stained shirt.  

  
     This was a writing exercise I set myself a wile ago. The first version was a very boring run of sentiences:There was a cat sitting on the wall. Below the wall there was a bird feeder. The cat watched the birds. Then a boy came running by. The boy stopped at the corner of the wall. The cat walked to the corner and watched him. Very dull, but it did serve to jump-start my imagination. I have no idea what comes next but I liked the way it came out. Who knew writing a cat would be so much fun? 

Also posted on my first blog, http://fromyesterdaystomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/on-wall-sat-cat.html