The People Watcher

As I was getting ready to write this post today, I took a minute to check some email and came across my daily inspirational quotes email (do not judge, they make me feel good). Today’s quote was from Keanu Reeves, of all people. Neo, himself. “The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.” Well said, Keanu, and exactly what I was planning to discuss today. I like that Keanu and I are on the same page. I knew I always liked that guy.

Since I recently published my third book, Florida Girl, I am getting a lot of questions about where I get my ideas from. People always want to understand an author’s “process.” I’m not fancy. I don’t have a “process.” Each book has come to me from different angles, at a different pace, and with different planning. I am nothing if not inconsistent. But I was jolted out of this confusing way of handling my creativity by a discussion with my son recently.

He is taking a filmmaking class in college right now and he loves all the details, the directing, the equipment, the editing, the scoring. But he claims to have “no initial ideas on topics.” I call BS on this, as I watched him as a child create amazing tableaux of lego compounds and detailed storylines that went along with them. They are rattling around in that brain somewhere. But his quest for actual advice got me thinking.

I get my ideas from people watching. Pure and simple. I was an only child for 15 years before my sister was born and I spent a lot of that time observing the people around me. My parents and I used to have annual passes to Walt Disney World and instead of going for the full day to ride all the rides, we would show up for dinner, a ride or two, and then take a seat on a bench and watch the world go by.

Oh the stories we would make up about the people we observed. Was that a lover’s quarrel? Was this a new Brady Bunch-style family on their first vacation? In that group of friends, did he secretly have a crush on his best friend’s girlfriend? Who knows? But it was fun to consider the options. The best way to write good dialogue is to listen to actual people speak!

I realized my son has spent so much time staring straight down at his phones over the years. When I’ve touted the benefits of people watching in the past I was met with words like “creepy” and “weirdo.” Thanks, son. Now, when I told him to go sit in a busy building, or on the campus green, watch how people interact, and make up possible stories in his mind about where they could be coming from or where they could be going , he was like, “Huh, that’s actually a good idea.” Again, thanks, son.

So, there you go. I guess my process is simply observing people and wondering what’s going on in their lives. It’s a great way to spend some time and understand people, in general.