You might never see them again

Again we have the same pattern: concrete detail followed by first person commentary.

"Wave him off, Ort," Mum says to me. She always reckons you should show people you love them when they go away because you might never see them again. They might die. The world might end.

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

Secondary character dialogue: Start with a simple piece of dialogue.

Belief & Expansion: The narrator tells us what motivates that dialogue—how it reflects the secondary character’s deeper beliefs.

This is the power of first person narrative: while we are limited by the narrator’s point of view, the narrator gets to tell us what they think about everything we/they see.

“Bring back profiteroles, if you can get them,” Emmanuel calls to her. He knows hotel staff throw a lot of good food in the bins outside the kitchen. Emmanuel isn’t too proud to eat pastries from the garbage. Not Hilton pastries. And not if Imani’s the one doing the digging.

“Are you sure you won’t stay?” says Mama. She doesn’t think Grandma will complete the journey before nightfall. Grandma has been here all afternoon. Now the sun is sinking. The woods are not safe in the dark.

Write your variation here.

First person in That Eye, the Sky 1: Saying goodbye

You might never see them again