The Art of Noticing for Writers: From The Art of Noticing (A Vintage Short)

Being a first-class noticer, and cultivating the ability to attend to what others overlook, is crucial to any creative process.

“To resist metaphor is very difficult, because you have to actually endure the thing itself,” she said. “Which hurts us for some reason.”

These “forces” are, strictly speaking, invisible. We’re talking about mind-sets and feelings, instincts that even the individuals involved may not be consciously aware of. Invisible forces are a fun challenge to seek

How about a Field Guide to Area Dogs, based on your observations? Determine names, physical descriptions, relative friendliness, and barking styles. Or research a Field Guide to Intriguing Personal

“Let’s say we go to a bar, and we see people that are dating,” Ariely suggests. We also notice that the place is noisy, that it’s dark, that it’s crowded, that there’s alcohol: all sound observations. “But now, as a social scientist, I want to think of it like a Newtonian physics problem,” he continues, “and say: ‘What are the forces at work? What’

FRENCH WRITER Georges Perec, best known for his 1978 novel Life, A User’s Manual, coined the term infra-ordinary to describe the opposite of the “extraordinary” events and objects and communications that dominate our mental lives. Perec’s obsession with the infra-ordinary was in part ideological—it

“Through conversation,” Krouse Rosenthal writes, “endeavor to find a collection of autobiographical statements that are equally true for each and every member of the group.” Throw out questions: Are we all from America? Do we all like flannel? This might last thirty minutes or go on for hours. “You’ll know when to wrap it up.”

Did you know that road signs are designed to signal the level of danger drivers need to be aware of by the number of sides they have? And stop signs, having eight sides, signal the second highest? (The round and thus effectively infinite-sided sign used to mark railroad crossings is the highest level.)

Try this out. Then imagine a version of Yelp built of reviews of everyday things in general—workaday objects, quotidian sounds, unusual sensations, random encounters. Review a manhole cover or a siren. Review the most interesting thing you touched all week or the most memorable smell you encounter in the next twenty-four