Think about all the ways you hide your true self, your deepest opinions, your uncertainties from the world by the simple act of keeping your thoughts to yourself. Use internal monologue for reader insight This is one of those subtle and powerful ways to show instead of tell that will add depth and authenticity to your writing. Your readers will begin to infer all kinds of things about your characters that you don’t have to come out and tell them. So, identify specific traits you want to highlight about a character and work to display them in the words, phrases, patterns, and tone of their internal voice give them highly nuanced self-talk. Does your character have a positive or negative self-image?Įach one of these can be developed in your character’s thought patterns.Is your character suffering from self-delusion of some kind?. Does your character often hear a parent’s (or other figure’s) words repeated in their own thoughts? If so, how does this influence their behavior?.Is your character guided by any particular religious doctrines or spiritual notions?.Is your character an optimist or a pessimist?.Can you see what a wealth of knowledge that gives you to draw from? Internal monologue is about more than just letting us in on a character’s thoughts, it’s also an opportunity to show us things about their deepest self: their past, their worldview, their religious or spiritual outlook, their personality. What do they reveal about you beyond the surface of the thoughts themselves? The very structure, tone, and nature of our thoughts expose all kinds of information about your past experiences, your worldview, your cultural outlook and preconceived ideas, your personality, and much more. Think about your own patterns of thought for a second. Use internal monologue for character development You could show us all kinds of thoughts inside your character’s mind, but focus on those that help you advance the plot and the internal character arc. Advance plot and character development, don’t just pick at random.Writing too much of your character’s thoughts will slow down a scene, but too little or none at all can make readers feel disconnected from the character. Aim for a balance, you want it to feel seamless. What is it you want to show your readers about your characters at a particular point in time? How can internal monologue help you do that alongside your dialogue and exposition? Here are two things to keep in mind: Like any other writing technique, internal monologue is most powerful when used to accomplish goals you set for a scene. Internal monologue is a tool, it’s not a thing you want to do haphazardly. Let’s look at how you can use this technique to make your characters come alive for your readers. No matter what’s happening on the surface, we get a real view of what’s underneath. More than any other tool in your writer toolkit, internal monologue gives readers a window into your character’s mind, a look at the thoughts they share with no one else. Internal monologue refers to putting the character’s thoughts onto the page. You know the books that pull you in so powerfully you feel you’re part of the story itself, not just a spectator watching from the sidelines? I always come away from a book like that thinking, How did the author do that?! One of the common denominators of such stories is the use of internal monologue.
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