STORY
CHARACTERS DO THINK
Fiction
writers have the freedom of giving their characters thoughts.
Yes, a writer can give the reader an experience into the thoughts
of a story’s character, and what could be more intimate,
than to see into a person’s mind?
Now,
I’m not saying that other literary art forms never let
a person experience the inner workings of a character’s
mind. It’s done in some cases by soliloquies,
which is a way of a person speaking to him or herself. An
example of this can be found in some of Shakespeare’s
works, e.g. “Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
This is taken from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.
Juliet is actually talking to herself, she doesn’t know
that Romeo is eavesdropping. In stage plays the emphasis is
more on dialogue and what the audience is experiencing is
a conversation.
The
best way is in the printed page. But, this isn’t as
easy as it sounds (a little pun there on words).Anyone who
writes fiction wrestles with the problem of how to convey
inner thought dialogue without distracting from the flow of
the story.
Should
a writer use quotation marks or possibly
italics to designate a character’s
thoughts? The answer to that question is possible use of tags
e.g. “He thought” or “She wondered.”
Actually all three can be used, but sparingly.
In
the case of using a tag, one is not necessary when a character
is alone. The use of quotation marks tends to make the reader
believe the character is speaking the words aloud.
Inner
dialogue is simply the speech of a character to him or herself.
They hear it and the reader hears it, but other characters,
in the same story scene, have no idea of what’s going
on in their head.
A
positive side to inner dialogue is it can be continued for
many pages to unfold a story, a scene or until another character
appears. Inner thought dialogue can reveal a character’s
emotions, love or despair. Each of these can bring a reader
to focus on various story situations.
There
are also several key benefits in mastering the use of inner
thought dialogue. One is it can create a powerful story protagonist
or an antagonist. Another is not only letting the reader visualize
a character in an action scene, but allow the reader to know
what the character is thinking of might happen to them. And,
of course, it can reveal or develop a story’s character’s
personality.
Now,
let’s look at a few ways on how to format Inner Dialogue.
Writing
in the First Person is probably the easiest way to express
a character’s thinking. In this case a writer can reveal
a character’s thoughts in a story with the opening paragraph.
It can be an alarming thought situation or a visual thought
describing a morbid scene or even a conflict. Example:
Staring down into the raft at her naked body my thoughts drifted
back…
In
the Third Person, the use of italics allows the writer to
use present tense thoughts while writing in the past tense
without distracting the reader. Just remember to be consistent
throughout the story and, wherever possible, set the thoughts
in their own paragraph. Example:
Entering
the drug store Johnny saw Joan coming toward him on her way
out and flashed her a smile. “I’ve still got to
get even with her.” Joan seeing Johnny returned his
smile. “That rat, I’m not through with him, yet.”
Let’s
step out of the box and look at a writer using a narrator
in a story to reveal a character’s inner thoughts. When
a writer uses a narrator he or she usually wants to gain distance
in some part of the story.
A
narrator can tell the inner thoughts of a character by explaining
or summarizing a coming event of the story. For instance:
A story is opened by the main character telling what has happened
to have him or her in their present predicament. In a First
Person narration, the story is revealed through the main character
by directly conveying the story like a Third Person, but is
also the focal character. Example:
This
type of inner character narration thoughts is best showed
in the Robert Montgomery movie, Lady in the Lake (1947).
The film is shot from the viewpoint of the central character,
Phillip Marlowe. The audience sees only what he does.
In
closing the Marshall Plan for Novel Writing recommends
the use of italics to convey thoughts in step # 11 of his
16 –step program (Evan Marshall 2001).
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Now,
go softly into the night. mgf
Comments
always welcome
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