smithreynolds's picture
smithreynolds from Spokane, WA USA is reading The writing on the wall. August 12, 2016 - 7:49pm

EVER just have a kickass snippet of dialogue and no idea where it came from?  What good is that. Here's mine for the evening.  

 

"Do you stalk your son on facebook?"

"mmm... yes I do, like if I'm trying to figure out if he has a girlfriend or something."

"Why don't you just ask him?"

"Well that would be an invasion of his privacy now wouldn't it?"

bethwenn's picture
bethwenn from Milwaukee is reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann August 13, 2016 - 6:08pm

Sometimes. It used to happen much more often. Lately, the well's a bit dry. Probably stress-related.

More of just a disjointed line than dialogue: "Yeah, I believe that same as I believe in God. Not even a little bit, unless it really bums me out and I feel like lying to myself." Not sure what corners of my mind it came from or why.

Gordon Highland's picture
Gordon Highland from Kansas City is reading Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore August 13, 2016 - 6:55pm

Not usually entire exchanges like that, but individual lines, sure. Then later when it finds its way into my work, I'm trying to source it, unsure if it had been my own invention or something just rattling around in the box from a movie or comedian or whatever. The Google can be helpful in that way, to plagiarize-proof oneself.

In this same way, though, Twitter has ruined my writing. Now, any witty little ditty of soapox prophecy that springs to mind is online 30 seconds later because I can't help myself. In ye olden days, I'd jot down these nuggets in a notebook, and when it came time to pen my first novel, they were like a treasure trove. Now, I can't resist the instant satisfaction that comes from purging these brain droppings 140 characters at a time.

smithreynolds's picture
smithreynolds from Spokane, WA USA is reading The writing on the wall. August 15, 2016 - 7:23pm

"The sun came down heavy, lile a ripe cantaloupe, smashed and juicy and cooled sticky."

 

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal August 17, 2016 - 10:40am

I get these a lot when I'm starting a new piece, and almost never once several drafts in.