Had an idea to write using only overheard coffee shop conversations for a week

I live in Portland and spend way too much time at cafes (like 4 visits last week alone). So I thought I'd try a writing prompt where every story had to start with a line I actually overheard, like "I don't think my cat respects me" or "he backed the truck into the mailbox again." After 7 days and maybe 30 overheard snippets, I found that the best stories came from the most boring lines, not the dramatic ones. The quiet comment about someone's garden gnome theft turned into a 2000 word mystery I actually finished. What I learned is that real dialogue sounds flat and weird, and trying to polish it up wrecked the whole feel. Has anyone else tried basing prompts on real eavesdropping, and did you get anything usable?

3 comments

3 Comments

averym829d ago

The garden gnome thing is exactly what worked for me too. My best result came from a lady complaining about her neighbor's "aggressive tulips" - I used that line and ended up writing this whole thing about plants waging a silent war across a property line. The dullest overheard stuff forced me to actually build a world around it instead of relying on the drama. What really surprised me was how much better the stories got when I left the grammar wrong and the sentences unfinished, like people actually talk. Polishing it into perfect English made everything sound like a bad TV show instead of real life.

the_derek9d ago

There's a book called The Art of Hearing by some guy I can't remember that talks exactly about this - how the best dialogue comes from people who aren't trying to be clever, just saying what's on their mind in the messiest way possible.

benwilliams9d ago

Started scribbling down stuff I caught at a bus stop once, not even a cafe. Lady next to me goes "the carrots are fine, it's the peas I'm worried about" and I built this whole thing about a guy who thinks his vegetable garden is trying to take over his life. Turned into a weird little comedy where the main character starts blaming his breakup on a bad crop of beans. The best part was keeping her exact worried tone when she said it, totally flat and serious.