It starts with one word: Observe.
A simple Google definition: notice or perceive something and register it as being significant.
The hard parts are at the beginning and at the end. We must first notice. Then, we must perceive what we notice as significant.
I'm sorry to say that most of us plow through life without noticing or perceiving. I might include would-be writers in that category. But... you are different if you choose to be. It's your choice.
You think you can write? You think you have a short story, poem, novel in you? Maybe. What's stopping you? There are many answers to that question. I will only address two in this post: writing a short story or novel.
Truly.... the barriers to writing either could be a lack of knowledge of grammar, education, experience, or the conventions of fiction, etc., etc.
I'm here to tell you... You can bone up on all that. But... if you want to be a writer, you must first own one skill first. I believe it is the most important skill to master as a writer - granted you have the ability to create sentences. That skill is observation.
A little background here. I studied at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. It is one of the hardest journalism programs to get into. I not only made it as a student there, but I returned as a professor.
Something I have never forgotten, wisdom that has helped me, as a journalist and as a writer of fiction, to this day is this: Observe everything you encounter with the eyes of a child.
The question for you? Why are the eyes of a child more perceptive than those of an adult?
Answer... everything is new to a child. Adults are jaded. Been there. Done that. Nothing new to see here.
Yet... as writers, we must fight that compulsion to dismiss the "ordinary."
Case in point... I was driving to work, as usual, the other day. I take the same route. It requires no real thought to drive out of my apartment complex... onto the road... then to the highways that eventually lead me to my destination.
But.... while I was stuck in traffic the other day, I noticed something. I was observing. I saw something on Valentine's Day that I thought was interesting.
Here is my observation of that moment. Is it something? Or nothing? It is something? As a writer, you can make it something. I say it's something. It hones your skill to pull writing exercises out of random events in life.
Go find your own moments. Let me know what you find. I'd love to hear them.
In case you missed it:
Trying to keep going even when your body doesn't.
An observation exercise on Valentine's Day. What do you see as you go about your day?
