The opening of The Tell-Tale Heart

Whew! So much effort for one sentence!

But in that one sentence we’ve learned half a dozen techniques we can use to create manic intensity in a narrator. 

Let’s put all those pieces back together and take a fresh pass at this snippet.

What does the snippet do overall?

The narrator denies an accusation so strongly that we wonder if it is actually true.

How does the snippet create its intensity?

• Exclamation
• Quality group with repetition, strong describers and intensifiers
• Clarifying tenses
• Defensive questioning

Let’s try writing our own variations. Have a character admit to one extreme emotion or state of mind, but deny an even more extreme state.

Follow the pattern in the original, but feel free to loosen up and play around with the details.