Try to rewrite the scene of Mrs. Dalloway walking down Bond Street
LQWKH¿UVWSHUVRQVW\OHRI7KHUHDWDWVE\ or, perhaps, in the terse
and more literal-minded approach of Dashiell Hammett. In other
words, see if it’s possible to evoke Mrs. Dalloway by having her tell
us what she’s thinking directly or by simply describing what she does
or says as she moves through the scene. Conversely, see if it’s possible
to apply Virginia Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness technique to Sam
Spade’s hard-boiled world and still keep the scene tense, energetic,
and suspenseful.
