Found a weird trick for dialogue prompts at the bus station yesterday

I had to wait 45 minutes for a transfer downtown and got bored, so I started eavesdropping on the people around me. One guy was on the phone talking about how his dog ate a whole bag of flour and he didn't know if he should take it to the vet. Another lady was arguing with her kid about why they couldn't bring a lizard on the bus. I wrote down about 10 different lines of real talk people said, and now I'm using them as dialogue starters for scenes. The weird thing is, the actual conversations people have are way more random and interesting than anything I make up in my head. Has anyone else tried mining public transit for writing prompts? It feels a little creepy but the material is gold.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_brooke11h ago

Did this at a laundromat last week and got three character ideas out of it.

william32011h ago

Did your friend @the_brooke end up using any of those character ideas?

shane_perry293h ago

Wait are people really taking a whole afternoon to do this? Like sitting at a bus stop just to write down random stuff people say? I mean I get that it can be interesting but at some point you're just overhearing someone's bad day or their kid being annoying. That lady arguing about the lizard probably didn't sign up to be your writing inspiration, you know? Not saying it's wrong but I feel like you could get the same effect just watching a reality show or scrolling Twitter for five minutes.