I talk to myself. A lot. All day, about everything. Heck, when I’m in class or in public and can’t, I feel like I’m holding my breath (crazy??).

How I Collect Quotes

Most of the quotes I keep are my reactions to everyday stuff or T.V. shows (e.g. Supernatural, TWD – I get very involved with my shows), or from when I play all my characters in a scene as I walk around doing chores; or, sometimes quotes come from my conversations with me. I won’t use 95% of the stuff I collect, but occasionally it contributes to the inspired birth of new characters, scenarios and/or storylines. So I keep everything.

Examples:

• Mutual Enemy: (darkly pleased) Villain…
• Villain: (sighs)
• Mutual Enemy: DON’T SIGH!

 

• I hope you like vertical prairies.
• (???) You mean mountains?
• And fluffy antelope.
• (Mountain goats...)

 

• Does this actually work in real life ooooooooohhhhh – this is real life. Is it WORKING?

 

• Because I have fabulous hair.
• That is not a reason.
• I beg to differ.

 

• Hero: What’d you talk about?
• Villain: (honestly) baking cookies.
• Hero: I won’t pressure you if you don’t want to talk about it.

 

• He made great efforts to ignore my attempts at easing the atmosphere; and I made greater efforts to sabotage his efforts so that ignoring me at all became conditionally impossible, bordering on belligerence.

 

• I wanted to relocate but it turns out if I do, I’ll die mysteriously.
• Wow, that sucks.
• Yeah, it does.

 

• [In mountain gear in the mountains] Is that an accordion? I thought we were mountain climbing!

 

• Hey, did you find my thing?
• What thing?
• The thing I lost. I can’t find it.
• What was it?
• I don’t remember but I remember looking for it.

 

• [Creepy/weird sounds on other side of door]
• Those are either zombies… or ostriches.
• [Peeks]
• DON’T LOOK!!!!

 

• [Casual gesture] My other two weird friends you haven’t met.

 

(I’ll probably collect these things forever. And then when I’m super old I should compile it all in a single colossal volume of nonsense – as a supplemental to my autobiography which only Megan and I will read, over Papa John’s and yarn. And I’d title it something like: “Here Lies My Brain: I Never Said It’d Make Sense.”) As a writer, what kind of stuff do YOU collect?