The things that people say. When they think you can’t hear them.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

How often do you overhear an awesome one-liner or witty comeback, and tell yourself you need to write that down to use for one of your characters?

I’m always listening, and people watching. I have to try to make sure that I’m not too obvious but there is so much valuable information out there that it would be a shame to waste any of it.

In fact, I get a lot of my inspiration, in general, that way.  Somehow, the world has this strange way of putting me in earshot of a whole load of good material. Unless there’s more of it about than you realise, enough for anyone who cares to listen. When I first started paying attention, I was still at the stage where I was surprised at some of the things people say when they think nobodies listening.

The last year, with all its restrictions on hanging out and overhearing conversations, has meant a drop in my output.  I suspect that’s the reason.

I get a lot of Andorra Pett’s (hopefully) witty one-liners from overheard conversations. As she’s a hapless amateur detective (and I hope she doesn’t mind me saying – she gets there in the end), they’re all related to unfortunate circumstances, with a fair amount of self-deprecation and gallows humour thrown in.

I have a notebook and pen in my pocket at all times when I’m out and about. I have to write the things I hear down before they vanish. Strangely, once I have done that, I never forget them. I transfer them to a document in my cloud storage as soon as I get home. I add to it every time I hear something that sounds like it might be useful.  Some of the things I hear are happy, some are sad and some make you want to collapse in peals of laughter and give the game away that you’ve been listening.

I’d love to share a few of them with you, but then you wouldn’t buy the books and see them in context. Instead, here are a couple of so-far unused gems that I’ve overheard.

A woman, talking to her daughter. “if your father hadn’t died, I would have left him.”

Two women talking. (1) “She’s a headmistress,”

(2) “Really, whose?”

They are both perfect for Andorra Pett, it’s just the sort of thing that she would say, or that would fit the mood of characters in her stories.

Items to be used in my other series are not so clear cut, they tend to be composed more of conversations that describe a situation than witty remarks. They will suggest a possible reaction to what’s going on in their lives. Or it could be a range of choices for one of the people involved. It can be interesting to hear how they dealt with whatever it was, then try to think up another possible solution.

For example, here’s one that happened to me.

I often tell the story of how Ribbonworld came to be written. While I was still at work, my boss sent me and a few others on a course and put us in a very downmarket hotel. We all agreed that it was the sort of place where you wouldn’t be surprised to find a body in the bathroom. That remark stuck in my head and I started wondering what you would (or indeed could) do if you DID find a body in your hotel bathroom.

I’m now writing the fourth book in the Balcom series, so I guess I have my cheapskate ex-boss to thank for that one.

Let me know what you think about this week’s subject.

I’d love to get your comments, please leave them below. While you’re here, why not take a look around? There are some freebies and lots more content, about me, my writing and everything else that I do. You can join my newsletter for a free novella and more news by clicking this link.

Now see what the other blogs in this hop have to say by clicking below.

Check out the other great blogs here.

I’d love to get your comments, please leave them below. While you’re here, why not take a look around? There are some freebies and lots more content, about me, my writing and everything else that I do. You can join my newsletter for a free novella and more news by clicking this link.