Not all public places are ideal to research ideas for writing!
Getting ideas for writing while in public places is easy - unless, of course, you are taking time out in accommodation provided by your Government following an unfortunate experience in a criminal court.
Public spaces are accessible. As soon as you walk outside your house, you are in a public place and there are people everywhere. Each of them have their own personal stories and, as we wander, we are free to speculate about them? Why have they worn those clothes? Where are they going? What are they thinking about?
Moving on down the high street. Who owns the shops? Are they successful? Bearing in mind the credit crunch, the shops you pass might be on the verge of bankruptcy. How do their owners feel each day when they open their shop shutters perhaps knowing today they will probably make another loss? What are their hopes and dreams? What are their nightmares? Your next story writing idea could be right in front of you.
Wander nonchalantly into a cafe and buy a cup of coffee or tea - the more crowded the cafe the better. Bury your head in a book or magazine as you pretend to sip your drink - but the real purpose for being in the cafe is not to read.
Instead, tune into the conversations around you. Saviour the smells, listen to the sounds of the coffee making machine. Examine how you feel in the cafe? Do you feel threatened or do you feel warm, cosy and welcome?
Listen for titbits of conversation on the tables around you. Construct what you hear into stories. Like any eavesdropper, you will probably misunderstand what they are saying but that doesn’t matter. Sleuth-like, enter up your writer’s notebook as each idea for writing about characters and plot in your next short story or flash fiction occurs to you.
Now stop! This next suggestion for finding ideas for writing does not apply to vulnerable persons and I absolutely take no responsibility for any harm that comes to anybody, vulnerable or otherwise, from pursuing the following course of action.
It is something I do from time to time but I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody else. (Frankly, there’s no point is suing me anyway, I’ve got no money!)
In fact, unless you always go out well-protected by personal tasers, pepper sprays, vicious German sheep dogs or personal bodyguards with big muscles in their arms and halitosis , you shouldn’t even read on.
Er, is there anyone there? Oh, there you are! … What? … You are in the SAS? … OK, I will continue…
Leave the cafe and find a comfortable bench to sit on in your high street or public gardens - ensuring that there are people passing and that your location is safe, even if you are in the SAS.
Soon, with a bit of luck, somebody will come and sit next to you. Strike up a conversation. Let them tell you about their lives, dreams, their experiences and thoughts. Soon you will have lots of ideas for writing quite simply handed to you on a plate. (Er, no that doesn’t mean you can accept sweeties either, Mr SAS!)
I do this quite often and even have a blog called Adventures on a Bench which records conversations and thoughts I’ve had while sitting on benches and talking to strangers at various locations in the UK.
So there you have my suggestion about ideas for writing for today. It’s easy. Simply loiter in public places and cafes - trying, of course, not to get arrested.
Public places are a wonderful generator of ideas for writing because they are the place that so many stories intersect. Everybody you meet has a story even if it is only the story of their life.
Each person you see or meet in public is a complex amalgam of work experiences, romance and family life. Many have dreams and aspirations they dare not tell their friends but may tell you or another stranger on a bench. (Unless you are a member of the SAS, of course, you will have to imagine these stories.)
Can there be a better source for your next idea for writing - as long as you do it safely in your imagination?
Whatever your approach for getting ideas for writing in public places, I wish you good fortune and lots of happy and safe creative writing.
If you would like to read more about ways to find new ideas for writing, you may like to read my recent article about writing ideas and family skeletons.
Bye for now
Rob
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