Novel Ideas

           I was chatting with Wally today – that’s my close friend Wally (Walter) Dykema – and mentioned an online piece I had read about the ways in which screenwriting skill set is valuable to novel writers.
            To which Wally said, “Duh!”
            “The writer of the article talked about the tight constraints on a screenplay’s structure, how the story has to be well-built.”
            “As opposed,” Wally said, “to flowery prose and extended raptures of internal dialogue.”
            Wally and I both tend to be more than a little critical of flowery prose.
            “So what about you?” Wally asked, “Have you been using screenwriting tools as you work on ARC?”
            To which I said, “Duh!”
            “And that’s been enough, or are there some things screenwriting tools can’t help with in a novel?”
            “Everything a screenwriter learns gets in the way when he or she has to actually write out emotional reactions – internal dialogue stuff.”
            “And how did you lick that?” Wally asked.
            “I’m not sure I have it ‘licked’ but I got a good piece of advice from Pat LoBrutto that I think helped. ‘The character’s voice in internal dialogue should sound like it does when she’s talking out loud.’”
            When I paused, Wally asked, “But . . .?”
            “Some of the things she says internally, she would never say in public.”
            “Cool.”