Suffering from writer’s block or need to add some spunk to your writing? The problem may be that you need to change up your routine.

To that end, try this tip: Observe other people while in a public location. As you don’t have the full context of what they’re talking about or doing, make up a situation they are in – planning a heist, fleeing an alien assigned to assassinate them, deciding where they will hide a dead body, and so on. Now wrap their gestures and snatches of conversation into this situation and create a scene or even a whole story.