Good Writers May Not Be Able to Read Minds, But We Can Make You Believe We Can.
By: Kristina H
Tags: Creativity, Short Story, Storytelling, Writer, Writing

Character building in stories is such a fun challenge.

One of my favourite ,weird past times, is people watching to help build character’s backgrounds, stories and descriptions. It is a fascinating hobby, and although it may make me look like a creeper, I do it anyhow.

Just For Fun

Let’s go sit at a mall together. You see a lady, middle aged, with an expensive handbag draped across her shoulder. She is wearing high end, name brand leggings, knee high leather boots and a mid length faux leather jacket. Her blond hair is piled up high, in a messy bun, and her face is free of make up. She is a natural beauty, who probably looks younger than she is.

She walks into an expensive dress shop that is advertising an “Up to 50% off” sale and spots a red, sparkly dress on the first rack she sees. You watch her intently, as she glances around the store at the other racks, and walls, to see what else she likes.

Before she pulls the dress off of the rack, she scans the price tag hanging from the neckline.

She bites her bottom lip, and looks around again. She is looking to see what the sale price of the dress would be, she might be looking for duplicate dresses in her size, or she may be waiting to ask if she can try it on.

By biting her lip, you sense hesitancy.

Maybe she has spent her budget on her handbag, or name brand pants. She might be considering if the dress is worth paying more interest on her credit card, OR she may be contemplating what her man will think of the dress if she buys it. Another thought is, maybe, her biting lip is an indication that she is wondering if the dress is appropriate attire for a planned function, and she is hoping for the opinion of the store’s floor staff.

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These are the Moments Writers Can Enjoy and Fly With

It may just be a “typical” scene at the mall, but how much fun do writers have with situations like these?

We have the ability to write her story. We can WRITE what she is thinking, even if we are way off track.

All it takes is ONE situation to begin a story-it may be fictional, or poetic, or even an article such as this one. But, it’s ONE situation we observe, that gets our creative juices flowing.

Consider all of the other moments in your day. The people you see, the happenings around you, or the conversations you have. Aren’t we fortunate to be able to lock into those, to help us do what we love?

Moments are like props for painting artists, or scenes for photographers. They are ALL around us. When we have a writer’s mind, literally ANYTHING can spark a story. ANYTHING can become the topic, the theme, the character, the plot, or the imagery, if we write vividly and honestly enough.

We have the power to WRITE the mind of someone else, whether it’s true or not. Of course, if it’s not, it’s fiction, but if it is accurate, it becomes an article or even an interview.

We are very lucky to have this passion.

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Back to the Mall

You see a middle aged, well dressed, balding man. He is carrying some pink shopping bags and looking around the hallway, trying to spot someone, or something.

You see him hone his eyes on a bench in the middle of the walkway, where there are two other men sitting. They all have shopping bags from Women’s fashion stores either on their arms, or on the floor in front of them, as they perch on the bench.

One man is scrolling through his phone, another is looking at his watch, and the third approaches the bench, causing the one on his phone to distractedly move over, to give room to the new bencher.

As soon as the third man sits down, the three of them give each other a “knowing” look of understanding. They exchange a few words, and laugh in unison.

You KNOW what the topic of conversation is, and you jot the scene down in your phone, or notepad for a story to write later.

Another great opportunity for a story line and character building!

You can add descriptions of the men, the bags they are “in charge of”, the reason why they are all penalized to the bench, and a dialogue of their banter.

What fun!

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Creativity

Now, take those characters, and build, build, build.

The lady could be out buying a dress to wear for the man she is having an affair with. Biting her lip, she looks around to make sure no one is witnessing her planned purchase. She is thinking about their secret rendezvous and wants to look smoking hot for him.

They may be planning to meet in his cabin by the lake, and he will surprize her with flowers and promises to leave his wife. She’s too smart for him, however, and knows he is lying, yet again.

They have a glass of wine, and one last sexual escapade. He gets up, and goes into the bathroom to wash her off his body. As he emerges from the bathroom, she shoots him in the chest, with a handgun she had in her expensive handbag, before burying him in his own back yard. She is relieved to have this pain in the ass out of her life.

Paranoid that her husband has followed her to the cabin, or has tracked her phone ,she deletes her GPS tracker, and as she drives home, she throws her precious iPhone out the window. A few miles down the highway, she tosses the gun out of her window too.

She goes home, after stopping at a gas station to change back into her leggings and sweater. She leaves the blood-spattered, dirty, red dress in the garbage can in the public washroom. She casually strolls inside her house and tells her husband that someone stole her phone out of her purse at the mall. She puts on a charade about how angry she is and tells him that she was at the mall all day long, trying to find something special to wear for their date this weekend. She sobs that she couldn’t find anything she liked, and asks him for his advice on a red sparkly dress that she shows him online.

Moments later she sneaks into her bedroom and notices a smear of dirt from the ground she dug up, in her mirrored reflection, and hastily wipes it off with her sleeve. She grins to herself before returning to the kitchen to pour her husband a glass of Chardonnay.

And, JUST LIKE THAT. A moment can give you a story.

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

That’s Why There is No Such Thing as Writer’s Block.

If you can imagine, you can write. If you can see opportunities is simple moments, YOU CAN WRITE.

It may not always be a masterpiece, but it’s a piece. And, that piece will help you to reconnect with your creative self again.

Every morning, sometimes as I workout, or have a shower, I ask myself, “What should I write about today?” Most days, I have one or two ideas, but throughout the day, I find more, and more. I just watch for stories to happen around me, the same as a photographer looks for cool things to take images of, and manipulate.

Sometimes the topics come so fast and furious, I have to jot them in my notes on my phone, on a paper, or sit down and write a story about it-immediately.

Even if you write the vision down one day, and don’t get to it for a few days, it’s okay. The story can change. The perspective can change- even the characters can change.

It’s a fascinating craft we have, and the way we can use the art of language and words, is literally an open book.

We have the ability to make anyone think how we want them to. We can make any moment inspire us and we can use anyone or anything as our provocation to love our craft.

I encourage you to use my scene of the three men with shopping bags, and BUILD that story.

I would love to read what can be developed. Don’t forget to “read” their minds and write what they are thinking. It’s a challenge I think you will find intriguing.

Let’s have some fun.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +417,678 people.

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