Probably the very last thing you need at this moment is a writing exercise.  But here’s one that fits in with shopping and is one of the best fiction exercises I’ve ever come across. It also expands into writing in any genre. The idea comes from Twyla Tharp’s wonderful book The Creative Habit. (Check out this book – it’s inspirational as well as practical.)

Here’s what you do: Go out to a coffee shop, the street, the mall, and find a man and a woman, a couple, to watch.  Write down everything you observe them doing. Absolutely everything. If he scratches his head, write it down. If she digs in her purse for something, write it down. If he looks at his watch, if she shrugs, write it down. Very quickly you’ll have a long list because you’re writing everything down, mundane, ordinary, everything.  Now watch them, or another couple, writing down only what you find interesting.  This will probably be a pretty short list because you’re judging what’s interesting.  And this is what can stop us dead in our tracks when we write – we want to write the good stuff, the interesting, and we short circuit our own creative eye by judging.

Observe. Write. Then judge. 

Maybe what you write down could turn into a short story, maybe not. In any event it might teach you something about observation.