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I watch people and make up stories about them. But it doesn’t stop there. I make sure they read the stories. This can change lives. Really.

A 30-something mom pushing a shopping cart in a grocery store was having trouble controlling her 6 year old son. I watched and imagined her life and scribbled a story about her in a loose leaf notebook. As she distractedly finished her transaction at the checkout, I slipped the story into one of her bags. In the story, her name was Sherry, her child was Gary and they moved to a rural location, downscaled and the two had time to play together in the less-harried life they found there. Did it change “Sherry’s” life? I don’t know but it must have opened her eyes to some possibilities. I haven’t seen her around the neighborhood in weeks.

Another shopping cart, this time pushed by a homeless man, played a key part of different story I wrote. The homeless man, I called him Ivan, collects cans to makes a bit of money by selling the scrap metal. But, in my story, Ivan stares at the cans he’s collected and daydreams about transforming them. He constructs a huge angular structure, sets it on the sidewalk in Soho and puts out a cup to collect coins from pedestrians who admire his work. In the end, he has an exhibit in a major gallery.

I taped the story to his cart when he stepped away to do number one.

Now I’m looking for a subject for my next story. Where can I find you? If I don’t see you, you’ll need to write the story yourself.

Make it the story of a big change in your life, something dramatic and unexpected. Those are the best stories.