Ideas & planning · Tip 11 of 82 · 4 min read
Be a Noticer: Spot Stories Everywhere
Writers notice tiny things other people miss. Train your eyes and ears to find stories.
Writers have a secret superpower: they notice things. A single shoe on a wall. A dog that waits outside the same shop every day. Most people walk straight past. A noticer stops and wonders.
Slow down and look
Next time you're walking to school or waiting in a queue, play a game. Find one thing that's a little bit odd, a little bit funny or a little bit sad. That's a story seed.
- A balloon stuck in a tree. Who let it go?
- A tiny door at the bottom of a garden fence. Who uses it?
- Someone running for a bus with one shoe untied. Where are they late for?
- A bench with a little name plaque. Who was that person?
Listen, too
Noticers use their ears as well as their eyes. Snippets of talk you overhear can be wonderful story starters, as long as you're kind and change the details so nobody is upset.
Noticed: An old man feeding pigeons, and one pigeon always sits on his hat. Story: Every morning, Mr Oduya fed the pigeons. Every morning, the same scruffy pigeon landed on his hat. Then one day the pigeon didn't come, and Mr Oduya set off across the city to find it.
Ask "why?" three times
When you spot something interesting, ask why. Then ask why about your answer, and again. By the third why, you'll usually have a character with a reason and a secret.