100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019

Eavesdrop
Nine ways to improve your writing when you’re not writing

Be nosy. Listen to conversations on the bus, in the elevator. Screen out the words sometimes and listen only to the music. Tune in to teenagers’ conversations, and you’ll pick up the latest slang. Pretend to be reading on the park bench, and you’ll hear how words are used to convey more than they mean. Find out what people are talking about, what they care about. All of this will help you to communicate more effectively through your writing.

This passage from my book The Dorchester Gas Tank is based on a conversation I overheard at a diner in Burlington, Vermont.

“My neighbor’s daughter has just got back from Sweden,” Bernice says. Her words are slightly muffled because she has stopped in her conversation with Dora to slice open a roll of Italian bread and stuff it with provolone cheese, several thick slices of baloney and enough tomatoes, onions, etc. to sink a ship. Now she chomps on it as if food will soon be obsolete.

“I didn’t know they went to Europe,” Bernice’s sister says.

“Well it’s not really Europe. It’s in Scandinavia. It’s a Danish country.”

“Oh yes,” Dora says, “the Danish country is very nice, but those people don’t like to talk to outsiders.”

“Well, it’s a sub-language they speak,” Bernice says. “It’s like German, not fully developed.”

“Very guttural,” Dora says.

“My neighbor’s daughter says some of them are really awful. She went to a cathedral and one of them had stolen a crown from a statue of the Blessed Mother.”

“From the Blessed Mother? That’s disgraceful.”