People Watching for Writers – Nora Zelevansky QUOTES FOR WRITERS
I study the people around me and think, “Someone, somewhere, was once in love with you.” Then, based on anything I can assess about their appearance, what they’re carrying, the expression on their face, the way they respond to nearly getting kicked during “Showtime” performances on the Q train, I create a backstory for them. Did this person know that the other person loved them? Did they confess it in secret as children on the playground? How did it begin? How did it end?…Was someone, at this very moment, closing their eyes and pining for this stranger sitting right in front of me?
Short, tall, old, young—no one escapes my scrutiny. Occasionally, I have been caught and have quickly looked away. After all, staring at a stranger, particularly on the subway, is not exactly proper etiquette. Usually, I’m caught in the act of eyeing someone while I’m trying to come up with an incongruous or surprising trait…I can’t just assume the construction worker across from me is tired after coming off a long shift, on his way home to his stay-at-home wife and three teenage kids…He also needs to love tap dancing or making sushi and homemade peach ice cream. He also needs to hate country music and love Elvis…
Every now and again, these observations have informed my writing. When I come up with a particularly inspired set of characteristics or an evocative way to describe them, I jot it down and sometimes will give a character that quality.
Nora Zelevansky in LitHub
Picture credit: Taylor Heery on Unsplash
4 comments on “People Watching for Writers – Nora Zelevansky QUOTES FOR WRITERS”
Leave a comment
Over 125 reviews & 280 ratings on Amazon
A Good Confession
"Unputdownable" Miriam Stoppard
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 
be careful of doing this if you’re a man – the London Underground laws are now such that if you look at a woman she can claim you were threatening her, and get you in real trouble with the law, and you go on the sex-offenders list. It’s not anything you do, it’s if SHE decides it makes her uncomfortable.
Good advice about not intruding in any situation but I didn’t realise that there were special by-laws relating to tube travel. The best place for a writer is a bus and you can close your eyes and just listen. People talk on buses in a way they never do on the underground. Best conversation I ever overheard (couldn’t help it, she was a bit excited & a bit loud) was a one side mobile conversation of a 20 something girl relating her experiences the previous night. She clearly had a wonderful time & had met a guy she hoped she would see again. An airline pilot. The good friend on the other end was obviously pleased for her but trying to manage the girl’s expectations. Perhaps he was exaggerating to impress? Maybe they wouldn’t meet again but nothing could take away the wonderful evening…It was very sweet. And the best bit was when the girl ended the call with the words Bye, Mum.
that is sweet! dark room conversations are amusing, too… having spent a lot of time in the local uni one both as a student and as an assistant. [and having to remind certain students that when some of us have been under red light for an hour or more, the movements of others are as clear as if it was daylight, so please stop that before it becomes offensive…] and the assumption that because visibility is poor, nobody will hear whispered conversations either [I never figured that one out, but I learned more about some students’ family lives than was comfortable.]
I love people watching. But also I’m always trying to connect; on the Tube I come over all country mouse wanting to smile and say good afternoon like I would to people I pass round here. My husband is always telling me off for staring in restaurants. The person I truly can’t forget was a beautiful girl who came into the Italian restaurant where we were eating supper. She was in a blue silk evening dress and she was crying. She sat down, ordered a latte, and sobbed for without ceasing the entire time we were there. My husband passed her a napkin and a sympathetic smile. An older lady who had been dining with a friend stopped at her table as she left and said, “He’s not worth it, love. A beautiful girl like you, you’ll find someone else.” She smiled through her tears and said, “thank you,” but I didn’t think it was anything as pedestrian as a boy throwing her over; I think it was a far deeper tragedy than that.