I thought, “I want to accompany you
so bad. You have no idea.”
I said, “I'm busy a I can't can't
cancel. But if you would like to do something later...”
I thought, “I would love that huge
piece of chocolate cake.”
I said, “No thanks. I'm full.”
I thought, “This is stupid.”
I said, “I'm in!”
I thought, “I'm never going to do
that ever again. I swear.”
I said, “Just one more time...”
I thought, “That may be the ugliest
thing I have ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on.”
I said, “It's beautiful!”
I thought, “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!”
I said, “Oh no. Please. You
seriously didn't have to.”
I thought, “I really don't want to
talk right now. I just want to go home and sit and drool and eat.”
I said, “Yes? What was it you wanted
to ask me?”
I thought, “What if something
terrible happens. If it does, I have no idea what to do.”
I said, “Nothing is going to happen.
Even in the small chance that it does, I've got this...”
I thought, “Right now, there is
nowhere else I would rather be.”
I said, “Right now, there is nowhere
else I would rather be.”
http://onemillionfootnotes.blogspot.com/
3479: He thought “,” and He Said
“.”
I don't quite see the point of the last pair--why suddenly change gears? The rest work fine as a portrait of a civilized man successfully at war with his darker impulses. The last one? You didn't mean "anywhere else," did you?
ReplyDeleteI don't like the darker side. I can't help but give the reader hope. Even when I play games or read, I can't bring myself to choose the evil path. It isn't in me. Probably a weakness as far a writing goes.
ReplyDeleteI was cleaning out my desk today, preparatory to my impending retirement, and found my gradebooks from my first year at EM, 1987-88. The only names I remembered from the class lists were guys ( I had no female students at all back in those days) who I'd hassled with. Yes, I remembered the dark, nasty, hostile, and aggressive moments--not the sweet and light ones!
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, a mediocre writer can do a lot with the dark. But it takes a genius and an angel to make much of sugar and sunshine.