How I became a writer. Part 3

How I became a writer… Part 3

People watching…

People speak to me.

I love to people watch.

Their feelings speak to me.

Their body language speaks to me.

Their look and emotions speak to me.

These simple tools are all available to every one of us. There is no such thing as not having enough content. There are billions of us on the planet and therefore there are billions and billions of stories.

I did say that I had no formal training in writing. I did however take a course online from an individual in Connecticut. Now, this was not an online course as we know it today.

This was by no means formal schooling of any kind. This was a teacher so to speak who I bumped into online back in 2003. I was writing scripts and soap operas for Indonesian Sinetrons. Sinetrons are like soap operas with much fewer complications and for a simpler audience. 

But as I was doing this, I came across Larry. I have no idea what his name is, I forgot, so let’s call him Larry. Larry was a script coach and not so much a writer of books or poetry. But I did learn a few very insightful lessons from Larry.

This was decades… Oh my God, yes decades ago and years away from the term “Work From Home” But as writers, we worked from home. Now Larry had a few quirks and one of them was that even though you work from home you need to go to work.

For Larry, words struggled to come out of his head unless he dressed for work. Thus, Larry would get dressed and go to work. He would put on a nice shirt and dress pants along with dress shoes and off he went. Across the hall from one room to another was the office. Once he crossed the threshold to the office, he was ready to work. 

This was Larry’s motivation and his need to put words onto paper. Without it and dressed in shorts and flip-flops the words didn’t appear on the page.

I am fortunate enough that for me a cup of coffee and peanuts are motivation enough.

What works for you? I don’t know. What I do know is that for me people-watching brings out emotions. Look at the homeless guy on the streets or the mom and the two kids buying ice cream.

At first glance, the two are totally unrelated. But what if the mom is a single mom because her husband took off. What if the homeless dude is the father who couldn’t deal with the pressures of life and decided to disconnect from the world?

This is the exact reason that there should never be writer’s block. If you are stuck on a page or stuck with your character… take a break and look out the window or go to a coffee shop.

#BellLetsTalk, #writing #blogger #author #poetry #love #quotes #poetrycommunity #writersofinstagram #poem #writer #poet #life #instagram #lovequotes #poetsofinstagram #quoteoftheday #poems #quote #thoughts #writing #shayari #follow #inspirationalquotes #quotestagram #instagood #motivation #like #writersofig #loveyourself #poetrylovers