Observation No.3
- Scott Archer Jones
- Mar 8
- 1 min read
Every writer goes down to the DoItYourself for story ideas. For some, it’s the obituaries DYI, for some it’s the Police Blotter DYI, but they come home with a notebook of nuts and bolts, a hammer, a trowel. For all writers, it’s observation that provides the lumber to build the story out.
Here’s your observation:
You are marching along a suburban street, looking for a house number. When you find it, the house is revealed as a Craftsman style bungalow, very out of character with the McMansions that surround it. The cottage is obsessively neat. The stone pillars have all been pointed up with new mortar, the posts painted a stunning white, the porch is welcoming and has rattan furniture that looks like it’s from Raffles in Singapore. The yard is immaculate to the point you think it was mowed, trimmed, and swept within the hour.
In the driveway is a Ford Crown Victoria, battered and rusty. It is crammed with possessions, and the roof holds more.
Something is going on between the house and the car, between the owner and the driver.
Pick your character. Pick your point of view. Decide if you are in close, in the house, in the car, standing on the sidewalk. Does your narrator add context?
Write your story. Send to me in the comments.
It is apparent that some yin/yang function is transpiring here. I surmise that I received this address due to my recent CoPilot interface. Insight: See, dichotomy transpires even in the homes of suburban paradise. After encoding this mnemonic, I walk on, each step further reinforcing the CoPilot dialogue; it's more than intellectual data. Each step stimulates the neural pathways initiated by the dialogue; contining to enrich and diversify my ecosystem.