A Writer's Craft

I love people watching, and I love listening in to other people's conversations too. My parents always said that as a child, I was a 'right nosey parker' and if ever there was a spat going on in the street, or if an old woman had feinted outside the Post Office perhaps, I could always be found on the front row of the gathered crowd, gawping.

It's part of a writer's craft of course, to earwig into what other people are saying and if possible, to take notes that might be used later when trying to create realistic dialogue. For example, it's oddly difficult to write your characters engaging in a conversation that is banal, without making the dialogue itself too banal for the reader to read. So, imagine my delight recently when I witnessed a conversation that was so bizarre, and yet so dull, that I had to write it down for fear that I wouldn't believe later what I'd heard. I was sitting in the reception area of an office building waiting to be collected by a client. There was another man waiting, and his contact came in before mine. It was obvious that these two people had met before, but that they were slightly uncomfortable in each other's company. Here is how it went:

WOMAN [entering reception]: Hello, there. Sorry to keep you waiting. Are you ready to go?
MAN: Yeah, I'm okay. Good.
WOMAN: It's nice to see you again, but I do wish you hadn't called your children what you did.
MAN [slightly taken aback]: Oh, why?
WOMAN: Well, because me and my brother are Sarah and Simon as well.
MAN: Oh, I see.
WOMAN: Yeah. [awkward pause] Sarah Elizabeth.
MAN: Sarah Louise.
WOMAN: Simon John.
MAN: Simon George.
WOMAN: Oh! [nervous chuckle; another awkward pause] Are you used to smokers?
MAN: As in? [pause] How do you mean?
WOMAN: Well, as in, do you mind if I smoke in my car?
MAN: Oh, no. Not at all.
WOMAN: Only some people don't like it. And then I wouldn't do it.
MAN: No, no. It's fine.
WOMAN: Well, come on then. [Exeunt]

I just love that, don't you?