[Maryann Corbett]

I've decided to try to tackle a subject by means of dramatic monologue, and I'm running into a problem. So this thread is my attempt--selfish, but perhaps educational for others as well--to seek advice.

All the dramatic monologues I can think of this morning are spiced with extra color: Browning's use historical detail ("My Last Duchess" and "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister") and Hecht's use an exotic setting ("See Naples and Die") or the extra tension of illness ("The Invisible Man").

What examples can you point to, or what techniques can you suggest, that grab and keep the reader's interest in an IP monologue set in the now, in absolutely contemporary conversational language?