“Ted Hughes gave me this advice and it works wonders: record moments, fleeting impressions, overheard dialogue, your own sadnesses and bewilderments and joys.”
Michael Morpurgo
I'm going to do this. I'm going to get a notebook and then I'm going to write down the things I see. Like that girl and that guy in the Starbucks today, who sat across from each other talking for an hour then got up and hugged tightly before the girl left. I notice things like that, like the fact that I couldn't tell if they were just friends or if they were a couple, but either way it was obvious by the way they acted that they were something, that they were important to each other.
The young couple I saw once, in Home Depot, who started slow-dancing near the paint samples.
The little girl at the mall, walking her tiny puppy on a leash and shrieking with happiness when the dog pulled her ahead and she ran to catch up with her mother. That pure, untainted moment of happiness on a sunny day.
I notice things like this, all the time, and I always love it. There's so much beauty and wonder in the world, if only you can notice it. There's sadness and anger and bitterness too, of course, but that stuff stands out. It's the good things that are easier to ignore, to pass by without paying any attention to. I like these things, I like to remember them, because even if that particular scene never makes it into anything I write, the feeling of it is always there. I like for my stories to have that feeling of happiness, of lightness, of a dandelion (my favorite flower, shuttup I know it's a weed) growing wild, the first star twinkling at night, laughing so hard with a friend that you can't breathe and your side hurts, or watching some crappy television show with people you like and making fun of it the entire time. I love that stuff. I love the feeling of it and holding onto that feeling, trying to insert it into the words I write and the stories I invent.
So what about you guys? Do you notice things like this, or is it just me? Do you keep track of them? Do you love the quote at the top as much as I do?
