Sunday, January 12, 2014

Idea Garage Sale: Random Bits of Dialog

"No, listen, it's important!"
"Really? If it were, I hardly think I'd be hearing about it for the first time from a teen-age girl."
----
"Don't you remember?"
"No, because it didn't happen."
"But here you are."
"I got lost. That's all."
----
"You don't think it's odd that we're all named Elizabeth?"
"What else would we be named?"
----
"I don't know the words."
"That's no reason not to sing. Half the words are sha-na-na-na anyway."
---

And this is why it's good to have a notebook. So when you hear the voice, hanging bodiless in your ear, and can't afford the time to chase it down, you can catch it onto a page and put it away, for retrieval when your mind is a desert and you're convinced you'll never have another idea in your life.

They may not be the first lines of the story, and the mystery of their context may not be the crux of the plot; but all you really need is a way in, and the sound of voices.

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