One of the greatest things I’ve learned in my time writing fiction is that almost nothing in life is ever wasted.
Take the snatches of conversation you might overhear on the bus, in the playground, through the grafittied formica door of a public toilet. Every once in a while I’ll hear something so illuminating, interesting or hilarious that I just have to scribble it down in my pocket notebook with the thought that it might spark something creative in me – even if that creative connection comes months, even years, later.
For example, a few weeks ago I was walking back home after a trip to visit my publishers over in Brighton. I was in one of those tense, cold moods, having sat on a train for 50 minutes in a carriage full of screechy teenagers. As I walked away from the station, two lads of about seventeen were walking towards me, talking about their night out. Through a mop of floppy hair the first one said, “What happened to you last night, mate?” The second, more hungover looking lad replied, “Oh, man. You wouldn’t believe it. I was so wasted I thought I’d just go home. Somehow I got myself to the station, and I stood on the platform, waiting. But when my train came, I was so drunk I just stared at it. And then it went without me.” Floppy hair laughed raucously. “Oh, man,” he sighed, before they disappeared out of my earshot.
This funny little conversation really tickled me, and I wrote it down as soon as I got home. It was a charming, gritty insight into two strangers’ worlds, and whilst I haven’t used their conversation directly, the essence of it has made its way into the novel I’m currently writing.
So, use those overheard conversations to enrich your writing. If someone in the doctor’s waiting room insists on speaking loudly into their mobile phone, instead of tutting and rolling your eyes like everyone else, listen in for the little gems. It’s fun. An innocent moment of eavesdropping can help in the development of an existing or new character, or even give you ideas for plot turns and surprises. Carry your noteback unfailingly and never think you’ll remember what you hear without writing it down – you won’t!
Oh, what I’d give for all those lost thoughts and conversations I should have logged . . .
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