So, culture...maybe not the first thing that springs to mind when you think about Harvey Nicks. But the top floor brasserie and the Cafe Royal bar (or any bar frankly) are ripe locations for people watching. You can even observe people, eavesdrop on them without their knowledge, or being creepy.
Five minute exercise
This was set as homework as it was to observe someone and write about them and it just felt easier (and less obvious) if we all did that individually rather than en masse like some MI5 field trip.
I was in Waterstones' cafe on Princes Street (a brilliant location to people-watch by the way; lots of singles on laptops and avoiding eye contact) when I saw...
The girl with the off-the-shoulder cardigan - It wasn't styled that way, but that was how she wore it; consciously unselfconscious. It was deliberate, she wanted to be noticed.
Her laptop was out, but closed, her EarPod case cast with abandon on the tabletop. Her phone was large, with a polka dot cover, and it took almost all of her attention.
The cardigan was oversized for her but as she was petite it may have been an item of necessity on a chilly day. Her jeans were cut off, not to accommodate her small stature, they were designer with the trendy frays of fashion, not function.
Main task
A blind date? The couple sitting at the bar in the Harvey Nicks brasserie were definitely on a date. He was punching above his weight, at least she seemed to think so. Slightly portly and in his shirt sleeves, he sat with a glass of red wine and a relaxed smile.
Head to toe in black, from her designer bob cut to her healed leather boots, other than a flash of red on her lips and the pink of the half drunk cosmo that she pressed to them.
Her eyes darted about the room, casing it. The skyline of Edinburgh at dusk lay at her back and her eyes drifted towards the castle.
The brasserie wasn't busy, just a few couples and some ladies having a drink after an afternoon of shopping. Among the shopping bags stood a buggy. The woman's eye was drawn to the baby, then back to her drink. She clasped the cool glass, it was thin, expensive and could have been crushed if she tightened her grip.
Her companion had fallen silent and she looked up and smiled. But it was hollow. How can I tell him?
"Shall we move on?" He asked and she nodded, downing her drink as he raised his hand to the barman.
Out in the street he took her hand. She flinched but squeezed it back. He will understand.
The walked down to the red lit Cafe Royal. It was dark and lively inside.
The barman looked her companion up and down and smirked at her. She took her date by the arm and looked up at him.
They ordered a bottle of Portuguese Syrah. He picked it up and they melted into a booth. He poured the wine, catching her eye with an easy smile and she smiled back, exhaling.
Thoughts
The change of venue in the story was not just a plot point; Harvey Nichols was closing and we had to find another venue to plunder. It's definitely harder to find open, free, interesting locations for an evening writing session...but where there is life, there is creative fuel.
I had seen this couple in Harvey Nichols, sitting at the bar and I made many judgements about them. It was a good exercise in using my observations to create a back story, but also maybe to be a little slower to assume. Having said that my unkind thought was the unspoken concern of the woman in the story, though I felt too mean to say it out loud. And in fact, if what I thought was the case, how would she feel about that?
I am aware of shifting from observation to third person singular. But that matches my own shift from one location to the other; I didn't follow them...their fictional selves followed me! This is a clunky but clear example of taking observation and using it as a jumping off point in terms of characters.
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