I was on the bus the other day, whiling away the time by watching two people who were sitting side-by-side in separate pools of tiredness. You could tell that they were both worn out, but they were worn out in different ways. The woman was relatively upright, gazing into space as if she had been travelling forever, her expression blank. Next to her, the man seemed hollowed out by tiredness, crushed by it. He was slumped, his tie was loose at his neck, his head was hanging, his cheeks were gaunt. He didn't have the energy to gaze anywhere, he was staring at nothing. He seemed at the end of his tether, beside himself, bereft.
I'm sharing this with you because, as writers, you never know where you're going to find material, and you won't find it if you don't look. In fact, it's everywhere, all around you and if you take the trouble to search with an observant eye you will find everything you need to inform your work. Studying these people (as covertly as I could) make me think about characterisation, contrast, degree and detail; it was like taking a short refresher course in descriptive writing. It didn't just pass the time for me, it filled it with interest and wonder.
Another shopfront from the book village of Cuisery...
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