Recently, I came across this photo on Instagram
A simple window in Berlin. On the inside, taped to the glass, was a scrap of paper with two handwritten words:
Hi Marina!
That was it. No explanation. No context.
And yet, it invites a thousand possibilities. Who is Marina? Who left the message? Why did they want her to see it? How did it end?
A fragment like this is a perfect creative spark. It’s the same principle as annotations, lyrics, or obituaries: a piece of reality, out of context, waiting for your imagination to fill in the gaps.
Found notes are raw material. They can be funny, poignant, mysterious, or utterly mundane. But they always carry a sense of humanity: someone wrote this, and meant it for someone else.
As writers, we can borrow that energy. A note in a window might become a love poem, a character sketch, a meditation on loneliness, or something entirely unexpected.
The next time you spot a stray message - in a window, on a park bench, or scribbled on a wall - pause and copy it down in your notebook for later.
Sometimes the smallest notes open the biggest doors.
