Authors need to be good listeners. When you listen, you learn. And you may just uncover a great line of dialogue or a name for a character. I remember shopping for clothes in a department store. As I was waiting to go into the dressing room to try on a pair of pants, an old man walked out of the dressing room. He looked at his wife and said, “Do you like these pants?” She said, “Turn around.” He turned around. She said, “I don’t like ’em. They make you look like you got no ass.”
Elmore Leonard was at a book signing. A man walked up to him with one of Elmore’s books. Elmore said, “Who to I make it out to?” The man said, “Chili Palmer.” Elmore asked him if he could use the name. The man told him he could. It became a character in Elmore’s “Get Shorty.”
In addition to being a good listener, you need to retain the information. I always carry a small notebook with me. of course you could dictate the information into your phone. But hey, I’m an analog guy in a digital world.
Click the book covers to learn more about my Yale Larsson PI series.
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