A few years ago I listened to a Masterclass with David Baldacci called Mystery and Thriller Writing.
He had a lot of good things to say, but the thing that struck me was when he said that writing isn’t a job or an occupation or a hobby. It’s a way of life. He talked about “the writing prism” and how writers walk through the world, not seeing what is, but what could be.
And example: A normal person walks down the street and sees a woman with a shopping bag coming toward him. A car parks and a man gets out.
The writer elaborates the scene: The car driver is the woman’s estranged grown son, who has come home after two decades’ absence, to tell the woman something that will change both their lives.
I do this all the time.
All. The. Time.
Everyone around me is having heart attacks on the bus or falling in the river or getting chased by a wild boar in the woods or getting proposed to at the Christmas market. Life around me is very dramatic. At least inside my head.
Other artists probably do this, too. “Look at that. That’s a watercolor if I ever saw one!”
So, tell me, fellow writers and artists, do you look at the world through a creative prism?