One of the things I like to note, when I’m out and about in my daily life, is the way people talk. Some people have little verbal ticks that you just can’t make up, so when I can I try to notice them and write them down for future use. Kids are especially fun, as they say all kinds of funny things. For instance, the other day, Daniel told our daughter that she was precious and she said “like a pol?” He thought she said pole, which he knew couldn’t be right so he asked her to say it again. “Pol.” When it was clear he wasn’t getting it, she clarified “you know, like the thing what’s inside an oyster.”
A pearl. And notice the use of “what.” Celeste spoke Spanish before she spoke English (due to her dad’s Ecuadorian heritage and our El Salvadorian nanny), and in Spanish the proper construction IS in fact “la cosa que es blanca” which translates literally to “the thing what is white.” For some reason, this little quirk in our girl’s speech remains, even though she retains only a few words of Spanish. This is the kind of language stuff I like to note for use in my stories. And our girl is a fountain of them lately. No, more like a fire hydrant.
She talks non stop. And I’m not really exaggerating. Her mouth is like a window to the inner workings of her brain these days. She narrates her own activities: “See when I hold the stick like this and throw it up like this it goes up, but then it turns a little and falls, and watch mommy, when I throw the stick in the air…” to the point that when it’s time to brush her teeth I have to remind her to stop talking, lest the toothpaste foam and go rolling down her face. I’m telling you, it’s non-stop.
And I know there are some adults like this, so I’ve been trying to take mental notes of how, exactly, she does it. I’m fascinated by it. To write someone like this, you would have to really understand what goes on in their head, how their brain takes certain turns, and loops back on itself. As an author it sounds exhausting. And how would one weave that endless chatter into a story that had any through line at all? I guess at some point you have to just write something like “her mouth kept moving, but my mind wandered back to the day…” Or else you’re retreading work done by Gurtrude Stein back in the 40s.
Still, I’m filing all this away under “character traits.” Maybe it will come in handy some day.
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