Comments on: interior thoughts http://www.darcypattison.com/revision/interior-thoughts/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:30:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Kimberlee Conway Ireton http://www.darcypattison.com/revision/interior-thoughts/comment-page-1/#comment-5258 Kimberlee Conway Ireton Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:39:51 +0000 http://www.darcypattison.com/?p=2235#comment-5258 About 20 pages into my WIP novel, the heroine faints from fear. In order to make this believable, the reader has to understand why she's so afraid. So I use a short flashback (which I've hinted at prior to this scene) and weave it into the present, as if she's reliving the experience. Of course, this option will only work once. In other places, I've tried to show my characters' thoughts vividly. When my narrator pities the antagonist, she says, "A twinge of pity flickered in my heart." In the next scene, after the antagonist has been a total hag, my narrator says, "I hated her blond insolence." Yes, I'm telling what she's thinking, but both are reactions to what has gone before; both are short; both show us something about the kind of person the narrator is; and both connect with overarching images or themes in the story. About 20 pages into my WIP novel, the heroine faints from fear. In order to make this believable, the reader has to understand why she’s so afraid. So I use a short flashback (which I’ve hinted at prior to this scene) and weave it into the present, as if she’s reliving the experience. Of course, this option will only work once.

In other places, I’ve tried to show my characters’ thoughts vividly. When my narrator pities the antagonist, she says, “A twinge of pity flickered in my heart.” In the next scene, after the antagonist has been a total hag, my narrator says, “I hated her blond insolence.” Yes, I’m telling what she’s thinking, but both are reactions to what has gone before; both are short; both show us something about the kind of person the narrator is; and both connect with overarching images or themes in the story.

]]>