Why You Should Stare at People

Have you ever stopped to look at people? Not just glance over them with glazed eyes in passing, I mean really look at them. Look at their clothing, their hairstyle, what accessories they choose.

There is a reason characters like Sherlock Holmes or the slightly less famous Shawn Spencer from the show Psych are so intriguing. Being able to look at a stranger and suddenly have a wealth of information about the details of their life is the closest one can get to mind-reading.

I don’t think people realize that it’s actually not that hard. Honestly you don’t even need to come to a solid conclusion or reason behind what you observe. Exercise your brain with theories, instead. Explore all the possible explanations behind everything you see. Today, for example, I saw a woman at the DMV. She had short black hair and was wearing a fairly darkly colored, plain outfit.

However, her purse and her scarf were somewhat unique.

Her purse, simple gray, was decorated with pom-poms of varying shades of gray. From what I could see, it was very simply made, just two pieces of fabric stitched together with a couple handles. I wondered if it was handmade and if it was, who made it and where she’d gotten it. Had she made it herself? Did she get it at an art show? Off of Etsy? Had someone close to her made it as a gift? Was it actually factory-made and she’d bought it at a store? Was it her usual style or did this just happen to catch her eye?

Her scarf was the most eye-catching. It was a bright orange accessory against the women’s dark attire. I wondered why she chose her scarf to be the thing that stood out. Is this her favorite shade of orange? Does she have a collection of scarves at home? If so, did she struggle to choose between two or more scarves as she got dressed this morning?

I like to do this as a mental exercise. Since I prefer writing fiction, that means I have to come up with characters. The best way to come up with realistic fictional people is to observe real, nonfiction people.

Even if you don’t write much fiction, I still encourage you to try this sometime. It opens your mind and makes you more empathetic when you try to see from someone else’s perspective and guess their motives or lifestyle.

Take a look at the vibrant, colorful characters around you. Everyone you see has their own story. Their scraped knees, their biggest regrets, their first kiss. None of them are over yet, and new chapters are beginning all the time. No man-made book or story can compete with a real, living story.