This week’s topic was “Have you overheard a conversation and added it in some way to a story?”
I’ve thought about it, and, no, I don’t think I ever have. I’m a little hard of hearing so it would be tough to overhear a conversation anyway, LOL.
I have, however, included conversations I’ve had with my husband. (Just the way our Monday Fox did.) My husband gets to proofread my manuscripts even if he doesn’t want to. He usually has some type of criticism of my characters. One of my favorite characters is Richard Lovinggood from Return Engagement. I still think he’s absolutely dreamy. I had one romantic scene in the book where Richard sent small gifts to his love every hour on the hour one day. My husband read that and scowled at me. “I don’t like that. He’s trying to buy her love.” I didn’t think so because the gifts weren’t expensive. One of them was a giant Hershey’s kiss. Another was a couple of mylar balloons.
Anyway, he was reading my manuscript of Turnaround Farm, and to my surprise he said, “I really like this. Dan is a great hero.”
I thought about that for days but couldn’t figure it out. Dan’s great, no doubt about that, but I still liked Richard better. (Richard made an appearance in Turnaround Farm. He married Dan’s cousin Elizabeth.” It wasn’t until the book came out and I was looking through it that I realized why my husband liked Dan. Dan was based on my husband. It was all there, from his dislike of parties to his determination and everything in between. No wonder he liked Dan!
So, that’s about as close as I can come to adding real world conversations to a story. Maybe I should crank up my hearing aid and try to hear something really good! Maybe one day.
I think it’s natural that our heroes share characteristics with our husbands. They’re the guys we spend the most time with, so they’re the ones we know best. My hubby won’t read my manuscripts, but if I ask him what he would do in a certain situation, he’ll answer.
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I never ask mine to read more than a small amount at a time. He won’t do that.
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That’s a terrific anecdote about your hubby liking that character that you didn’t — at the time — fully realize was inspired by hubby’s own characteristics.
I’m wondering if your Hubby realized — at the time he read that story — that he was reading a character “based” (at least in part) on him.
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I asked him that, and he said he didn’t.
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I have trouble with my husband and my writings in that he takes every man as a reflection of him! It’s a problem here, even when the reflection is good. Mine wouldn’t complain that the man was buying the woman’s love so much as he’d think I was complaining that he never bought marathon presents for me.
We don;t need a marriage counselor, but we could use a referee.
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