Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Using Real Life

The other night, hubby wanted to go out and eat to celebrate his first day of school.  While we were eating, the staff sang happy birthday to a guy who’d arrived with several of his friends.  Right when they finished, another group announced that they were there to celebrate a birthday too –- a group of girls.  The staff and her friends sang to her, making sure that their volume and enthusiasm exceeded that of the guy’s birthday song.

As we were watching the dueling birthdays, my husband leaned over to me and said, “Wouldn’t it be a cool story if after dinner they talked and then connected?  Years from now, that could be the story of how they met?”

I agreed that it would be quite a story, and then I started thinking about the NaNoWriMo story that I’m working on for November.  I hadn’t quite figured out how my two main characters, a husband and wife, meet.  As I thought about it more, I realized that my husband had given me a perfect backstory for my characters.

Makes me wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t gone out to dinner that night.  What kind of alternate story would my characters be experiencing in November?  It’s great to be in my own brain, coming up with characters, situations and even settings, but there are moments that living in the world and watching real people can give even more insight.


Have any of you used real life inspiration recently?


2 comments:

  1. Yeah, I do that occasionally. It kind of makes the story more real for me sometimes. Cute picture of you two!

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    1. Thanks! It's from a few years ago, but I thought it still applied.

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