Develop Your Writer's Eye

What kind of eyes do you have?

We spent the weekend with our son and his family in Dallas, Texas. As Ken drove us home today, I had plenty of time to view the world along I-35 with my writer's eye. Things I might normally have paid no attention to captured my attention today. 

We were about 30 miles south of Oklahoma City with the wide open spaces on either side of the highway. Cars whizzed by going south or north. We happened to be in an area where there were no billboards, no highway signs, no road work signs. All we could see was grassland with nothing on it, not a building in sight. Suddenly, a figure of a man appeared. He was standing very erect with his back to the highway, staring across that empty plain. He was nicely dressed in jeans and a brown western style jacket with fringe on the bottom, also western boots. His hair was full but neatly cut. There was no vehicle on the shoulder of the road. It appeared he had dropped from the sky.

My writer's eye kicked in and long after we'd passed him.  I began to ask silent questions. Who was he? Why was he standing so still watching what appeared to be nothing? How did he get there? How was he going to get home, or wherever he came from? Did he walk a long way to get there? Did someone drop him off? So many questions and the only answers were one I needed to create. What a great beginning for a story. Or even a scene within a story. Or for a character sketch. Describing a man from the back view could be challenging and interesting. That man and those questions stayed with me for a long time today.

Many miles farther on, we were once again in a rather desolate area with no buildings or signs or people around--other than the cars and trucks barreling down the highway. I spied an empty car on the side of the road. It sat there abandoned, driver's window partially open. My writer's eye took it in and the mental questions began. Who left the car there? Why? How long had it been there? Was the driver in the area? Or had he/she been taken somewhere else in another vehicle? Once again, the situation, minor as it was, could be incorporated into a story or set the scene for the opening of a story--no doubt a mystery story!

Do you use your writer's eye when you are out and about your daily tasks? Do you stop when you see someone or something that makes you think of writing? What about overhearing a conversation on a subway train or in a Starbucks or while in a bookstore browsing? Does your writer's eye kick in when you come across those situations? 

If you're a memoir writer, you can use your writer's eye to see situations that are comparable to what you are writing in your book-length memoir or short memoir piece. Sometimes, seeing triggers memories from the deep recesses of your mind. Memoirists need to use the writer's eye, too. 

Those who write children's picture books must pay attention to all children, their activities and conversations, their observations, their laughter and their tears for inspiration for a new picture book. Their writer's eye should be wide open whenever they are around children.

How do you acquire a writer's eye? I think you must train yourself to look at all things with writing in mind. Make a specific effort to use a writer's eye on a once-in-a-while basis. For instance, the next time you go to the theater, watch the people around you at the ticket window, the lobby, even in the restroom.  Ask yourself questions that might help you create a character or a situation or a conversation to be used when you write. Do it off and on and you will begin to do it unconsciously. Before you know it, you'll be using your writer's eye everywhere you go. 

You might be concerned that you will forget what you saw before you can write about it or use it in a scene of a chapter. That's why so many writers carry a small notebook with them wherever they go. Jot down the basics to use later. 

If you don't already have a trained writer's eye, start working on it. Then keep it as long as you are a part of the writing world. 

I'm going to a luncheon tomorrow. I know that, when I walk into the restaurant, my writer's eye will scan the crowd and pick out the few who look like someone that could be a character in a story. It's just the way I am. As for the man in western dress that I saw this morning--I'm still going to wonder a whole lot of things about him and I have no doubt that he will appear somewhere in something I write someday.