“But then Shakespeare had a thought: What if a character had a conversation – with himself.”

Before Shakespeare invented the soliloquy, actors spoke in monologues and dialogues.  Soliloquys are a radical combination of the uninterrupted speech of one person (in monologues) with the tension created by expressing two different perspectives (in dialogues). Soliloquys demonstrate how a character can go back and forth when weighing both sides … Read More

“I began to think that some of us are the designated rememberers.”

I always begin my “How to Write Your Memoirs” classes by asking, “Why do you want to do this?”  No one has ever  answered the question like novelist Pat Conroy does in this collection of essays about writing memoirs.  Conroy said that he was surprised that when he talked with … Read More

“She felt that surely she hadn’t done every single thing wrong.”

Of course, this character – Astrid – had not done every single thing wrong. But, after watching someone she had known for 40 years get hit by a bus (literally), she suddenly faced the fact that she had made plenty of mistakes and had done things she had regretted. So … Read More