I found my best story ideas in a laundromat waiting area

Last Tuesday I was stuck at Suds & Duds laundromat in Portland for almost two hours because both dryers broke down. I forgot my phone charger so I started watching people come and go. There was this guy in a stained hoodie arguing with a vending machine, a mom teaching her kid to fold shirts, and an old lady singing to herself while folding sheets. I pulled out a receipt and started jotting down little details about each person. By the time my clothes were done I had three solid story hooks just from that one afternoon. Has anyone else found good writing material in some random boring place like a DMV or bus stop?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_rivera22d ago

did that lady singing to herself actually realize she was being loud enough for you to hear her or was she totally in her own little world? i swear those kinds of people are pure gold for character ideas because they give you so much to work with. what caught your eye about her specifically that made you jot it down? sometimes the most random details like how she moved or the way she hummed end up being the best parts of a story.

barbara_butler21d ago

Oh hold on, I gotta push back a little on the "singing to herself" part because that's not quite what happened. She wasn't singing to herself in her own little world, she was singing at me, like looking right in my direction while she did it. That's what made it so weird and memorable you know? She kept eye contact the whole time, like she was performing just for me but also pretending she wasn't. It was more like she wanted to be heard but wanted it to seem accidental or something. That's what got me writing it down, the way she'd glance over then look away real quick but her volume never dropped. The humming part is what really sealed it though, because she'd hum the parts she didn't know the words to, and that somehow felt more intentional than if she had just mumbled through them.