observations

Being as I am always searching for new characters to inhabit my work, I occasionally travel to what I call the ‘outside.’  I will go to a mall or the airport, a busy street corner, a library or a food store and simply wander around.  I wander as if removed from all around me and as if I have dropped in as an observer from ‘someplace else.’

I note the people scurrying about.  I focus on their clothing, their movements, their attributes and their mannerisms.  I do not judge them, I simply observe, note down and become ultra aware of how they portray themselves through their words, actions and movements.  So many people scramble about securely tucked within self-protective cocoons. A busy intersection at rush hour becomes almost an orchestrated dance, where the players merge and separate, jostle and turn as if guided by some unseen hand and unheard music and yet seem to go through the movements with little contact or awareness of the other dancers.

I’ll sit in the park and watch mothers interact with their children and watch children at play.  I’ll stop at the bus station and watch as the commuters scurry to and from work.  I’ll hear scatterings of words left floating in the air and wonder about the circumstances that prompted the words.  I love watching as the blue-toothed generation gestures into the air, their unseen and unseeing partners in conversation unable to appreciate the symphonic display of wildly moving hands and winging eyebrows.

From a back bench in a courtroom I have watched defendants and juries, attorneys and judges play poker with lives.  I have seen the bets raised and then called by a jury.  I’ve listened as voices change from pleading to scornful, from authoritative to ridicule.  I watch eyes and mouths and seen how they go from being direct to secretive, from firm to jelly, and from sad to joyous.

As if on a screen, I watch as tempers fly and road rage simmers to a boil.  Have you  ever realized that from a distance too great for sound, that laughter looks much the same as crying? Our faces contort to similar proportions.  The movements are quite similar.  Only the emotions expressed differ.

Wandering through hospitals, I have spent hours in waiting rooms watching life play out.  It is interesting to see how differing people spend interminable hours awaiting results of surgery on a loved one:  How some knit, fingers flying and eyes focused elsewhere while others stare vacantly at a wall as if watching mind-television of the  operation.  Some folks cuddle together, fingers entwined yet ever moving.  There are readers who disappear into what they are reading and some who merely turn the pages, the words of escape never penetrating to the brain.  Some folks converse quietly, others, ignoring  filled chairs of the condemned, exchange words of anger, blame and venom or strength, faith and love.  Tears of sadness and fear can change instantly to tears of joy or relief.  I’ve seen how very strong and how incredibly weak the human character can become and I’ve watched as some make the switch from weak to strong.

I scribble notes, half thoughts and impressions.  Mad scientist I, I take this from him and that from them and suddenly this character bursts to life and walks through my pages.  It is fueled by my memories collected from this day and that.  Emotions, thoughts, mannerisms and wardrobe combine into living and breathing characters.  I ponder motivations, create interactions and then sit back and watch what happens as fingers fly across the keyboard in my attempts to keep up with the maelstrom. 

Writer are the observers of the human condition, the reactors to the whimsy of our minds and the creators of entire worlds within worlds.  Pretty fascinating place to be, and incredible journey to undertake.

I challenge you to spend an hour sitting someplace out of your everyday, contextual world  and simply observe, really look and watch and see, truly see the people orbiting you and create a character, a living, breathing, motivated, emotional, reacting character from what you see.  You might surprise yourself!