Challenge #3

Two weeks ago I made October “Challenge Month”—a month full of challenges for you to undertake as a writer, my philosophy being that the more we challenge ourselves, the more we grow as writers. And last week I asked you to think about place, to let location inspire you to create a story. That first step was to pick out a place that could inspire a story. So hopefully, you’ve done that. And whether it’s a park in your town or a race track in a neighboring state or the Acropolis in Greece, you’re going to GO there.

So go. Get in the car, on a bike, a train, or a plane and go. Step into the new.

First step: Be unobtrusive. You want to disappear into the scene, you don’t actually want to take part in the scene. Writers are observers. So find a place and do just that—look. Look at the place itself, the people who inhabit the space, the people who walk through the space, etc. If you’re outdoors, consider the animal life—which could be animals if you’re in the country or the forest, squirrels if you’re in a park or dogs being walked on leashes if you’re in an urban environment.

Second step: Be busy. If you’re in a park, pretend to read a book so that no one comes up to you and starts talking. You want your concentration on the place for now, not on increasing your social life by having someone try and chat you up. If you’re on a park bench, sit right in the middle of it to discourage someone from sharing the bench with you. If you’re at a café, take the second chair at your table and just lean it up on the table, as you might do if you’re waiting for someone—that tells people the seat is taken and no one will bother you. Wherever you are, this is a time to be standoffish because this is your time to see everything that’s happening around you.

Third step: Take pictures. Use your phone to snap some candid shots of the area—even take short videos. Then when, a week or two from now, you’re sitting at your desk trying to remember the scene, looking at those photos/videos will bring it all right back.

Fourth step: Take notes. Pictures can’t capture the nuance of behavior that you might observe—the look you see a wife give her husband as they walk by you fighting, the sounds that surround you, the intensity of the kids playing a game—and observations you have of what’s going on are worth jotting down. And sometimes those observations are in the form of questions, like why does that group of teenagers all dress alike? Or why is there only one woman at that table of 4 and why does she look uncomfortable? You don’t need a reason to jot down your questions, just make it a kind of stream of consciousness thing.

Fifth step: Take a walk. Why? Because you need a break before the next step… which will be Challenge #4, next week! See you then!!

Copyright © Diane Lake

15Oct17

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com