There was one little aspect of the presentation I mentioned in the last post that sort of put me off--I remembered it last night. Ms. Lawson tries to associate her hightlighter colors with something easy to remember: blue for dialogue (i.e. talking a blue streak). So, when it came time to talk about yellow--the color for internal thoughts, she tells us (I'm paraphrasing) 'Yellow is the color of urine. When you highlight all those lines of internal thought, think of it as little puddles of pee.' First of all, that's disgusting. Second, WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH A LITTLE INTERNALIZING????? I think the publishing world has been brainwashed. Everywhere I turn I'm hearing, 'minimize the time in your heroine's head', but the books I'm reading, the books I'm loving have it spades. And these (at least most of them) are well-received, very popular books, and for good reason.
A little internal thought can do magic for a book, and it certainly doesn't have to be the death knell. People think. People in books should therefore think occasionally. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
And I really don't care to picture my hard-won WIP with little puddles of pee all over it. But that's just me.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
Gah! Yuk!
I am with you on this one, Alyssa! Internal thought should depend on the character, not on a trend.
Ditto what Susan said!
Yellow highlighters = pee?
I like internal monologues - it REALLY DEPENDS ON THE AUTHOR, right?
yellow- color of sunshine (sun for light to see better- insight)
This is my theory.
Then again my book has internal dialog so I could be overly sensitive.
That's gross. And you're right...time inside a heroine's head helps us know who she is and what she's about.
I'd go for lemonade as a visual. Or rays of sunshine...
I've heard the same thing about the internalizing (that's it's a no-no) but I'm like you Alyssa, the books I'm loving have it in spades. I think it depends on the reader's personal preference. Period.
Although, when you think about it, if you hold it in and don't ever pee, you'll get very very sick and die. So if you feel the need to pee, I think you should. ;-D
I internalize all the time.
Bleah!!
Like everything else in life, it's all about balance, right? A little internal stuff when it's appropriate. Then back out into present action and dialogue.
Puddles of pee. Sheesh. *shaking my head*
Eww. Talk about an odd visual...
Then we're all on the same page...especially Thomas.
I with you on this, that is as long as the writer does it well. If they do then I love it. It makes me know the character that much more. Kinda of a way to put a little first person in a not first person book. :D
Post a Comment