Be a spy! Observe someone - preferably in real life, but if not, on TV or from a photograph.
* Describe them.
* What are they doing/thinking about/hoping for/planning.
* Speculate on what they're like, what their life is like.
This can be either a straight piece of observation, or you can turn it into a story if you like.
Here are some first lines - could you use one as the inspiration for a piece of writing?
In the town where I was born...
Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea...
Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again.
"Please allow me to introduce myself: I'm a man of wealth and taste."
When I find myself in times of trouble...
They call her the Queen of the Supermarket... *
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair...
At first I was afraid, I was petrified...
She's got a smile that, it seems to me, reminds me of childhood memories...
Eleanor Rigby lives in the house where her mother was born.
Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away...
