I was once asked, “Have you overheard a conversation and added it in some way to a story?”
I’ve thought about it, and, no, I don’t think I ever have. I’m a little hard of hearing so it would be tough to overhear a conversation anyway, LOL.
I have, however, included conversations I’ve had with my husband. He gets to proofread my manuscripts even if he doesn’t want to. He usually has some type of criticism of my characters. One of my favorite characters is Richard Lovinggood from Return Engagement. I still think he’s absolutely dreamy. I had one romantic scene in the book where Richard sent small gifts to his love every hour on the hour one day. My husband read that and scowled at me. “I don’t like that. He’s trying to buy her love.” I didn’t think so because the gifts weren’t expensive. One of them was a giant Hershey’s kiss. Another was a couple of mylar balloons.
Anyway, he was reading my manuscript of Turnaround Farm, and to my surprise he said, “I really like this. Dan is a great hero.”
I thought about that for days but couldn’t figure it out. Dan’s great, no doubt about that, but I still liked Richard better. (Richard made an appearance in Turnaround Farm. He married Dan’s cousin Elizabeth.” It wasn’t until the book came out and I was looking through it that I realized why my husband liked Dan. Dan was based on my husband. It was all there, from his dislike of parties to his determination and everything in between. No wonder he liked Dan!
So, that’s about as close as I can come to adding real world conversations to a story. Maybe I should crank up my hearing aid and try to hear something really good! Maybe one day.
