People Watching to a Whole New Level

Do you every people watch while you’re driving?

It can be done without crashing and without accident—I’ve done it. In fact, I do it every day on my drive into work—since I have a half hour commute to where I work fir this literary agency, I tend to use the time to think about the people I’m driving by.

There is one intersection when I take advantage of this level of people watching (you can see a lot even for that split second when you zip by them). Most often I’m only going about 30 miles an hour and they are stopped at the light while I drive by.

Some things that I’ve learned and/or observed?

• ·         They are almost all business people on their own commute.
• ·         Many of them are yawning.
• ·         Or drinking something out of a mug—it always disturbs me to see an open mug, clutched in one hand as they navigate their steering wheel with the other
• ·         Some are jamming to music probably much too loud for their speakers—but I can’t tell over the noise my own music is making
• ·         Many are on the phone. Facial expressions vary from laughter, boredom or animated talking—and I wonder—what would I hear if I were listening in on that conversation?
• ·         Some have a companion in their passenger seat that is chattering, hands flying in description and the driver wears a very bored expression. Are they married? Are they are the fritz? Failing to communicate to the level they should be? I wonder.
• ·         Some aren’t even looking at the road, instead glancing over the tops of their sunglasses as they mess with their phone, music, lean toward the floor boards, etc. I’m always glad they are going the opposite direction that I am.
• ·         Parked at a stop light, many pull their purses into their laps and start digging furiously. Others sort their mail. Still others dance as though in their own private party. Me? I just try not to make eye contact with the car behind me and the driver I can see and observe in the rearview mirror.

What is the point of all these observations? They are all people. People with characteristics that help make our characters well rounded and interesting people on the page. Characters that have that level of authenticity.

Do you often think about what you look like to your fellow drivers as you drive down the road? Have you ever stopped to wonder what kind of story these people have to tell? The lives they have lived—the struggles they are in the middle of facing? These people have a story to tell and sometimes I tell it for them as I pass. Watch what is happening across their face in the split second that we meet and pass and I form a story for what is bringing them to this exact moment.

It’s a gold mind of opportunity for a writer. It heightens your level of observation and makes you that much more keenly aware of the people around you—even as you drive.

What interesting things have you noticed as you were driving down the road?

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Casey Herringshaw is a homeschool graduate and has been writing since high school. She is a total country girl, now living in a metropolis of Denver, Colorado.