To be a better writer you need to be a better reader. I’d add, you also need to be a great observer.
On the way to a downtown appointment, I noticed a building, the kind of old-school tenement you now notice mainly when it’s gone, its hand-laid brick and carvings replaced by machine-made steel.
One such building in Chinatown had open windows, some with books lined up across the sills. There were small screens I haven’t seen in years.
But it was the fluorescent lighting, as well as a fan, in a small produce store that captured the essence of old-school New York.
Nothing fancy here, just the kind of yesteryear details a writer notices when they look up.