You heard me. I listen to people talking whenever and wherever I can. I tell myself I am just collecting examples of dialogue, but that is not always the case and I am not ashamed to say it. Sometimes I know that what I am hearing will never make it into a story, but it often piques my interest and gets me thinking, which is why I do it.
I sit in public places, coffee houses, airports, restaurants and listen. It is amazing what you hear people discussing unaware or uncaring of the ears that are turned in their direction.
I don’t share or gossip about what I hear. That is not the purpose. Eavesdropping allows me to slip into other people’s lives and hear snippets of conversation that work better than any writing prompt ever could. These are real lives that revealed in small doses without resolution, until I turn my imagination to the issue and write an ending.
This is my version of a writing exercise.
It also teaches about real dialogue. People don’t speak in full sentences or even in a coherent fashion most of the time. They wander and digress. They make leaps and stumble. Their conversations are gloriously flawed, which is how I like it.
Try it yourself. Go to a public place and listen. Find a snippet of conversation, even just a phrase, and then use that to write a short story. Write your dialogue in the voices you hear and following their conversational flow.
Let me know how it goes. What did you hear?