“What could you do about that?”
“Give them something to do, I guess.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.... Wait. I’ve got it. They can look for an alien civilization!”
This method works well, but it does demand a certain degree of concentration. That’s the only tough part about it. Occasionally, I can’t even get my questions into focus, let alone the answers. At such times, my solo dialogue is apt to go like this:
“Well, Bob, how’s the lad?”
“I’m fine, thanks. How about you?”
“Oh, I’m fine.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Was there some problem you wanted to discuss with me?
“Problem? Oh, yes, it’s this story.”
“What story?”
“The one I’ve been trying to write for the last three months.”
“Oh, that story.”
“Yes.”
“You mean the story with a two-thousand word description of a Martian sunset?”
“That’s the one.”
“Have you got any ideas?”
“About what?”
“About the story, Bob. How can I fix it?”
“Well, you could always expand the description of that sunset…”
And so it goes—you win some and you lose some.