I was slowly driving down a residential street when I saw two men standing on the sidewalk, talking. Or rather one was doing all the talking and the other listened. The man speaking had his head jutting forward and he was frowning. The other man leaned back a little, away from him, his hands shoved deep in his jacket pockets, his face expressionless. My first thought was, "Whoa! Major argument here." But I quickly realized it wasn't. If the first man had been stabbing his finger at the other man, yes. But he wasn't. The one talking was probably just angry about something and the other one was captive to his ranting, and maybe didn't quite agree, since he was leaning away.
I do this a lot, watching people. It helps me to describe emotions in a story. I know of many writers who listen in on other people's conversations. That I usually don't do. Not only out of being polite, but also because it doesn't interest me, nor would I use their words as dialogue in a story. I'd rather watch their body language and try to figure out what's really going on in their minds. This is where my imagination as a writer comes in to play. And many times there is no reigning it in and a fascinating story unfolds.
Try it. Interesting stories can present themselves to you when you ask yourself, "What if?" Write it down or note it on you smartphone. Otherwise, you might forget and a wonderful tale is lost.
