Notice and Note: Signposts

contrasts and contradictions

a character behaves or thinks in a way we do NOT expect

again and again

a word is repeated, sometimes used in a odd way over and over in the story. Or an image reappears several times during the course of a book.

memory moment

the ongoing flow of the narrative is interrupted by a memory that comes to the character often taking several paragraphs to recount before we are returned to events of the present moment.

aha moment

when someone realizes something.

tough questions

phrases expressing serious doubt or confusion

words of the wiser

the main character and another are usually off by themselves in a quiet and serious moment, and the wiser figure shares wisdom or advice in an effort to help the main character with a decisoin