Creative Writing Observation Exercise

            Last night I attended a free 90-minute writing class in Bryant Park’s Reading Room.  Offered by Gotham Writers’ Workshop, the topic, presented by Alex Steele, was Creative Writing 101.  Alex had participants engage in several short writing exercises, including one focusing on observation.  Here is what I wrote.  No, I am not trying to brown-nose.

            Wearing dark tan laced oxfords, khakis, a short-sleeved plaid shirt with a pen sticking out of the chest pocket, black framed glasses, a silver banded analog watch on his left wrist, and a gold wedding band, the gray haired Alex Steele addressed the crowd more like a polished public speaker than a reclusive writer.  Only when he popped a Ricola cough drop into his mouth and drank from a bottle of store bought water would I have suspected that he was not totally in his element but “just some guy at a microphone”.