Seeing Like a Writer

What happens when we pay attention differently?Note: for folks who prefer to read instead of watch or listen, an article version is at the end of this. If you’re watching or listening on a podcatcher, you can find the original article at DonnKing.com/113.I went looking for a bench and came home with a question about how we experience the world.I hadn’t been to Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville for years. But I’m writing a novel that includes a scene along the Tennessee River, and I wanted to get the details right. I remembered a bench beside the boardwalk, but I couldn’t find a photograph or description that confirmed it was there.So I decided to go see for myself.I’ve spent years looking at places through a photographer’s eyes. This time, though, I wasn’t trying to make beautiful photographs. I was taking pictures of stairs, narrow trails, changes in the landscape, and details that might help me reconstruct the experience later.I was looking at Ijams like a writer.That got me thinking about the ways writers observe everyday life: the interesting phrases we overhear, the facial expressions we notice, the small details we collect without knowing whether we’ll ever use them.But why should writers have all the fun?In this episode, I explore what might happen if any of us deliberately paid closer attention to the world around us. Maybe the world wouldn’t change much. But our experience of it might.And that could make a difference in how we live.The Big TakeawayThe way we pay attention shapes the way we experience the world.Noticing something doesn’t necessarily change the thing we’re observing. But it can change our relationship with it. And that change may influence how we understand other people, recognize what matters to us, and engage with everyday life.In This Episode* The search for a bench. Why I returned to Ijams Nature Center to research a scene for my current novel, and why getting real-world details right can help make fiction believable.* A photographer’s eye versus a writer’s eye. How my years as a professional photographer shaped the way I see places, and why I found myself taking very different kinds of pictures this time.* Externalizing memory. Why I recorded photographs, videos, and spoken observations along the trail, and how tools such as Obsidian help me preserve thoughts that might otherwise disappear.* The habits of a writer. Listening for interesting language, noticing gestures and expressions, and asking “What if?” about ordinary experiences.* How observation changes experience. Why paying attention to a river, a conversation, or a facial expression may not change the thing itself, but can change our relationship with it.* An invitation to notice. What anyone, writer or not, might discover by approaching familiar people and places with a little more curiosity.A Few Things to TryI’m not suggesting we turn this into another project. Most of us have enough things on our to-do lists already.But here are a few ways to experiment with seeing like a writer.1. Visit a familiar place as though you’ve never seen it.Imagine you’re going to describe it to somebody who has never been there. What would you need to notice? What details have you been overlooking?2. Listen to how people say things.Pay attention to word choices, expressions, and gestures. Sometimes the way someone says something tells you as much as the words themselves. Respect people’s privacy, of course.3. Make a note of something that catches your attention.A phrase, an observation, an interesting question. You don’t need a complicated system. Just somewhere to capture a thought before it wanders off.4. Notice what you notice.What draws your attention? What makes you curious? What do you tend to overlook? You might discover something about your own values and interests.5. Ask yourself, “What if?”It’s a question writers use all the time. It might also help you see new possibilities in situations you’ve begun to take for granted.The point isn’t to collect more information. It’s to experience more fully the life you’re already living.Quote to Ponder“The world may not have changed because I was paying attention, but my relationship with it has. That in turn changes the world at least a little.”That’s a thought I’ve been turning over since my walk.How much of our experience is shaped by what we choose to notice? And what might change if we became a little more intentional about that choice?<p