If you do not find people watching to be a natural kind of high perhaps you do need an instruction manual after all. And since I fancy myself a giving kind of girl, I will take you gently by the hand and lead you down the path of enlightenment. Here comes a quick overview that you can use to stimulate your own future entertainment and skills of deduction. In fact, with practice you could become a super sleuth and get a television show and a cool name like Mentalist or something. This activity is the number one answer given by writers when ask how they build characters. Who knows I could be leading you to your destiny.
Okay, to start find a place with more than one person. You can certainly do it with only one but as a beginner it is best to have many potential observation targets to ensure you find someone you will enjoy watching. Now glance around the environment once or twice. If someone grabs your attention start with them. If not, arbitrarily pick a color and select the first person wearing the color. When viewing them build an imaginary fence around them blocking others so you can focus. Think of it like crime scene tape.
Next, take notice of a physical attribute (but not in a critical way). For example do they have hair if so, consider everything about the hair. The length, thickness, texture, (curly, straight, wavy) color (artificial, natural, gray), kept, unkept, style, decorations. From your observation of the hair alone you can probably figure out a number of things; approximate age, nationality, personal style (trendy, old fashion, casual, disinterest), possibly financial position, you may even get a feel for their general health if their hair is limp or very thin. A bald person is also fun to observe. Head shapes are interesting to consider and more so on bald people.
After you have observe everything of interest about the hair or head you can move from that area and tie other things in...ears, nose, lips, fingernails, feet if exposed. All these things begin to add to the character you are building. For instance if you judge the age to be older, do the hands show age to support your thinking? Use all of your observations to construct and deconstruct your character study. Now that I got you started - go wild.
I like to play this game a lot. Sometimes I do it to build what I consider my super hero girl power of reading people and other times I do it for simple pleasure. When I do it for pleasure, I make up stories about my characters based on my observations giving them extraordinary lives, scenarios, lovers, and exciting professions (like maybe an international spy). Trust me this entertainment will bring more satisfaction than gossiping or griping about your life. And did I mention it is totally Free!
