Burger King Challenge

I'm currently reading a book about how to write a novel. It's a collection of successful authors providing advice and valuable information for writing.

The chapter I just read is about place. When people read a book, they want to identify with the place. Whether is a real location (A quaint New England restaurant, a Southern Diner, A trendy upscale LA nighclub), or something invented in the imagination of the author, there has a to be a place where the characters are interacting, and where actions take place.

In describing this, the author of the chapter said that you don't want to write something so generic it could be anything or anywhere like Walmart or Burger King.

That got me to thinking. I could make Burger King into a place worthy of a story. Here is what I wrote. Feel free to share you thoughts.

Burger King Challenge

I arrived at my usual Burger King after the usual lunch rush. The parking lot is nearly empty and only one truck is picking up an order in the drive through.

The bricks and orange paint look the same as every other Burger King I've been too. This one is not only closest to my house, but it is also closest to my office.

I've been here often I know the manager, a young man named Robert. Sometimes I call him Bob, but I don't know why. He might be in his twenties, but I still think of him as a kid.

Across the restaurant from the entrance I see the two booths next to the soda machine have not been replaced. The plastic and Formica of the tables and accompanying bench seats are a melted white, yellow, and orange blob on the floor.

No one seems to remember how long those two booths have been waiting to be repaired. Robert, or maybe I should just call him Bob, says whatever happened was before he started working here. He also says he has no idea when it will get fixed. I think everybody is just happy that whatever it was, it didn't affect the soda machine or the ketchup dispenser.

I walk up to the counter to give a bored girl my order.