Okay, that probably sounded kinkier than planned, but that’s okay, we’re all friends here. The point is, I love people watching. One of my favorite places to have done this was New Jersey, where I saw a wider variety of people than I’d ever seen before. It was a people watcher’s paradise!

Usually when I watch people, I try and imagine their lives. Either what they are doing or thinking at the moment or what their lives are like. I like to think I’m accurate in my guesses, but the only way to know is to follow them around. And usually the police get upset when you do that. When I was younger and didn’t have a car, I took the bus a lot and would write about the imagined lives of the people on the bus. Man, some of those people had incredibly bizarre lives!

So, what does this have to do with you?

The name Collective Inkwell isn’t just our chosen online studio name. We want to help inspire and foster creativity in our community.

Following suggestions and positive feedback from our story contest earlier this year, we want to invite you to take part in more creative writing exercises. We’ll try some different things from time to time depending on how popular they are.

First up, the photo story prompt.

Here’s the idea. Using the photo below as your prompt, you leave a comment with a short story describing the scene below. Feel free to use this only as a launching point, if you like. Be creative.

We look forward to seeing how you interpret this scene.

Please tweet this post and help spread the word.