Go to a restaurant or coffee shop that’s has a decent crowd in it. Ideally, it will be busy enough that there will be multiple conversations going on around you at once. Sit down, open your notebook or laptop, and listen. (And don’t forget to order something to support the establishment!) See what snippets of conversation you can pick out. Write things down. You don’t have to follow just one conversation. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Pick out sentences, phrases, and words. Write them down as they happen. Let everything be fragmented and disjointed. I recommend listening for at least 30 minutes.
Once you’ve gotten a solid amount of material, you can go one of two ways. First, you can find a phrase or sentence that really resonates with you, and build a story or poem using that as your inspiration. Alternately, you can take your hodgepodge of sentences and create a poem using only what you’ve transcribed.
Poetry and Practice 