Eavesdropping
A common question for writers is "where do you get your ideas"?
I eavesdrop.
No, not on the average conversation! That's just wrong - and often extremely dull.
"Hi, Jane."
"Hi, Jill."
"How's that rash your husband has?"
"It's better. The ointment at least got it to stop oozing."
(Not a great inspiration for a story. All though, you could make it into a medical mystery or sci-fi thriller, I suppose.)
And the other kind of normal conversations usually involve things that are too adult-like for me and require actions that I just don't want to tackle. (I probably do have crab grass and should have it treated but I don't really care and certainly don't want to spend the money on that when I could buy yummy real crab to drip in butter. Great, now I'm hungry. And I don't have any crab, just crab grass. Crap.)
I eavesdrop on myself. You know, those snippets of conversations that suddenly spring up in your mind and you perk up, wondering just who said that and why they think their neighbor should die?
No? You don't have strangers speaking in your head about murder and mayhem? Huh, that's odd. It happens to me all the time.
I'd ask my psychologist brother if this is bizarre, but then he'd start analyzing me and there's no end to that once it's begun. ("So, sis, tell me the emotional motivation to put tarter sauce in the sugar cookies when you were young. Was it a cry out for freedom from domesticity?" Back off, bro - I just read the damn directions wrong and I'd never heard of creme of tarter before!)
Anyway, I usually "intercept" some bit of conversation and if it's interesting enough, I begin to mull it over. Who are these people? Why do they want to kill their neighbor? Is it because their neighbor is a screechy-bitch like mine? How are they going to do it? Will they get caught?
And that's how a story can take off. I use that bit of dialogue and build around it. Sometimes I take current news events and blend them in. Sometimes it's complete fiction, without any conscious borrowing from reality. But most of the time, that's how it starts for me, that snippet of speech, which may or may not become the actual opening of the story.
Now, back to the couple plotting to murder the obnoxious neighbor - this could be good! Is it wrong for me to hope they succeed?
I eavesdrop.
No, not on the average conversation! That's just wrong - and often extremely dull.
"Hi, Jane."
"Hi, Jill."
"How's that rash your husband has?"
"It's better. The ointment at least got it to stop oozing."
(Not a great inspiration for a story. All though, you could make it into a medical mystery or sci-fi thriller, I suppose.)
And the other kind of normal conversations usually involve things that are too adult-like for me and require actions that I just don't want to tackle. (I probably do have crab grass and should have it treated but I don't really care and certainly don't want to spend the money on that when I could buy yummy real crab to drip in butter. Great, now I'm hungry. And I don't have any crab, just crab grass. Crap.)
I eavesdrop on myself. You know, those snippets of conversations that suddenly spring up in your mind and you perk up, wondering just who said that and why they think their neighbor should die?
No? You don't have strangers speaking in your head about murder and mayhem? Huh, that's odd. It happens to me all the time.
I'd ask my psychologist brother if this is bizarre, but then he'd start analyzing me and there's no end to that once it's begun. ("So, sis, tell me the emotional motivation to put tarter sauce in the sugar cookies when you were young. Was it a cry out for freedom from domesticity?" Back off, bro - I just read the damn directions wrong and I'd never heard of creme of tarter before!)
Anyway, I usually "intercept" some bit of conversation and if it's interesting enough, I begin to mull it over. Who are these people? Why do they want to kill their neighbor? Is it because their neighbor is a screechy-bitch like mine? How are they going to do it? Will they get caught?
And that's how a story can take off. I use that bit of dialogue and build around it. Sometimes I take current news events and blend them in. Sometimes it's complete fiction, without any conscious borrowing from reality. But most of the time, that's how it starts for me, that snippet of speech, which may or may not become the actual opening of the story.
Now, back to the couple plotting to murder the obnoxious neighbor - this could be good! Is it wrong for me to hope they succeed?
Oh yeah, I listen in on my characters all the time.
I just hope no one else does. *peaks around suspiciously*
My heroes swear. Alot. They have horrible potty mouths. Words that I would never use myself.
If someone actually managed to ease drop on my mind-- well, they would be shocked.
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I admit I swear waaaay more than my characters! (It's at its worst when I'm driving because for some reason, every other person out on the road when I am, is a complete and utter idiot. When the Capt. it driving? Not so much. Go figure. Huh, just realized that I swear more than the Capt. and he was in the Marines. Not a good sign, I'm thinking.)
I actually have to go back in and add a few curse words, especially since I'm writing law enforcement and lots of guys and tension/fear. I think the concepts work well together.
If someone listened into my head, they would probably freak the hell out.
Lori Land isn't for everybody.
I think our brains would get along frighteningly well.
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I swear too, although to be honest-- I swear alot worse when I'm deep in a book. I think its because my heroes swear so much. It becomes second nature.
I find myself catching myself when I'm at work, holding the words back.
My heroes have always sworn, the heroines not so much. In the new WIP the heroine used Holy MOther of God as a swear word-- or maybe more like an exclamation point. lol
I have one secondary character in the new WIP who blasted onto the scene simply swearing up a storm. WORST. EVER.
In fact, he is so bad I had to go back and take half his out. And he is still one of the most foul mouthed characters I've ever written.
I truly expected at least one of my crit partners to comment on him and tell me he was going to far. Instead everyone fell in love with him.
Go figure
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