People Watching Writing Prompt

If you like to write out in public at a coffee shop, restaurant, or bar, then the people watching writing prompt is a game you might enjoy. I guess it could work if your home has a window or balcony overlooking a public area – just make sure you have a decent number of people to work with.

How to Turn People Watching Into a Writing Prompt

How does it work? It’s simple.

Step 1: Watch Someone.

That sounds creepier than intended… but it’s accurate.

Pick a person or group of people you can see from your seat. You could pick a table that’s being seated or even the servers or bartender.

But try to be casual about it, you know? You don’t want to be the person who makes people feel uncomfortable or gets asked to leave because you’re constantly staring at a specific person.

Step 2: Build the Character & Scenario

Make up a story about why they’re there and what they’re doing. Add details to the situation by how the people interact, and start building the characterization based on clothing, behavior, etc.

It’s really people-watching with a super-imposed storyline. It’s fairly simple, and I know plenty of people who aren’t writers who like to do it for casual amusement. My coworkers like to watch first dates and decide whether they’re going well or crashing and burning.

And how do they know? Body language.

Pay Special Attention to Body Language

That’s actually what this exercise is most useful for. Remember that almost all scenes in a book involving people also involve a description of their actions.

• leaning back in the chair
• tossing his/her head back laughing
• scooting closer
• touching his/her hand

See what people actually do outside of books. You might see some where there’s a lot of physical action (touching or movement) and others where there is very little.

That’s one reason why it can be useful to do this exercise more than once. You’re building up a library of human behaviors that you can then use in your writing.

Use Unexpected Actions

Since you never know what people are actually going to do, your little story can be unexpectedly derailed as you’re writing it (we talk about our characters doing unexpected things, but in this case, it can really happen).

Step 3: Remember That This Is for Inspiration & Practice

The fact that you’re writing about real people doesn’t mean you have to match what they’re doing 100%. You’re making up a story, not narrating real life. You can make them do whatever you want (cue evil laughter).

Just be sure to use some of what you see as inspiration – even if it’s only the characters. Otherwise, you’re not getting any benefit from the people watching.