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I like @Stephen's idea, which I think you should adapt into a series of exercises. Sit in a park or at a café somewhere and people-watch. Try to write down what you see. You can't know what peopl...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:39Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24926 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:40:29Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24926 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
I like @Stephen's idea, which I think you should adapt into a series of exercises. Sit in a park or at a café somewhere and people-watch. Try to write down what you _see._ You can't know what people are thinking; you can only observe. So write that down: _She spoke. He laughed. The dog barked. The waiter looked bored/interested/tired. She kissed the first woman on the lips and hugged the second woman. The little boy whined that he wanted more ketchup._ Once you're used to writing what you see, take that home and try to use it as a skeleton for a short piece. What could they be talking about that made him laugh? Why was the waiter tired? and so on. It doesn't have to be a story; just practice figuring out motivations from outside observations. You can do this with TV too, but I would turn the sound off so you aren't cheating by hearing the dialogue. The advantage is that you can pause and rewind to study faces and gestures.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2016-10-13T10:00:14Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 2