The trouble of using inner monologue

[NotaNuffian]

This has been cruising in my head for awhile because I had never seen it as big of a problem as I made it out to be, but it seems that I was wrong. In the normal world, there are methods of speaking, but in a conversation there should always be two or more people participating in it.

Speaking to oneself and oneself only is odd, the fact that one would open their mouths to start making noises for their own listening pleasure is irritating to others around, causing the irritated to either look at the offender funnily and/ or rudely, call the mental institute about their runaway patient or start a makeshift exorcism by dogpiling them and beating them black and blue.

So as to reiterate, talking to oneself is odd and bad. This happens to extend in speaking inside the head.

The results I found in novels didn't help with the cause, Lith from Supreme Magus spoke to himself a lot of times and he is a wellknown psychopath. While others in SM also has the habit to inner monologue, I believe it is because of Lithification, similar to how Shirly's Jasonification where everyone in Monster slowly turn into a Jason Asano. Using SM and dragging Oracle Paths in, the MCs would inner monologue to speak with the girl in their heads most of the times, justifying their use of thought bubbles most of the times (but can they fucc in the head like the singer in Legendary Mechanic? Tbc) because they have an actual listener other than themselves.

In the very limited amount of novels I read (CN, JP, KR) , all characters express their thoughts with their actions, making them direct. The characters who are hiding their agendas are either doing it badly with a "nehehe" while rubbing their hands together like a housefly, having no signs of them containing any hidden agendas by doing a poker face or doing the constipated face as though they are pushing a 22 pounds brown baby out.

The thought process is also streamlined by mashing the entire thing with the plot, the background and what characters look like, meaning the inner monologue requires no symbols like inverted commas or square brackets when they smear all over the paragraphs like road kill.

So after speaking so many negatives on inner monologuing by and to oneself, is there anything good that comes up with talking to oneself, other than in my own case and work, expressing inferiority and self-worthlessness when the character has no one to talk to?

 

[ModernGold7ne]

This has been cruising in my head for awhile because I had never seen it as big of a problem as I made it out to be, but it seems that I was wrong. In the normal world, there are methods of speaking, but in a conversation there should always be two or more people participating in it.

Speaking to oneself and oneself only is odd, the fact that one would open their mouths to start making noises for their own listening pleasure is irritating to others around, causing the irritated to either look at the offender funnily and/ or rudely, call the mental institute about their runaway patient or start a makeshift exorcism by dogpiling them and beating them black and blue.

So as to reiterate, talking to oneself is odd and bad. This happens to extend in speaking inside the head.

The results I found in novels didn't help with the cause, Lith from Supreme Magus spoke to himself a lot of times and he is a wellknown psychopath. While others in SM also has the habit to inner monologue, I believe it is because of Lithification, similar to how Shirly's Jasonification where everyone in Monster slowly turn into a Jason Asano. Using SM and dragging Oracle Paths in, the MCs would inner monologue to speak with the girl in their heads most of the times, justifying their use of thought bubbles most of the times (but can they fucc in the head like the singer in Legendary Mechanic? Tbc) because they have an actual listener other than themselves.

In the very limited amount of novels I read (CN, JP, KR) , all characters express their thoughts with their actions, making them direct. The characters who are hiding their agendas are either doing it badly with a "nehehe" while rubbing their hands together like a housefly, having no signs of them containing any hidden agendas by doing a poker face or doing the constipated face as though they are pushing a 22 pounds brown baby out.

The thought process is also streamlined by mashing the entire thing with the plot, the background and what characters look like, meaning the inner monologue requires no symbols like inverted commas or square brackets when they smear all over the paragraphs like road kill.

So after speaking so many negatives on inner monologuing by and to oneself, is there anything good that comes up with talking to oneself, other than in my own case and work, expressing inferiority and self-worthlessness when the character has no one to talk to?

Inner monologues are quite common in reality, most people just refer to them as thoughts, people tend to think to themselves when they're alone, or bored.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Inner monologues are quite common in reality, most people just refer to them as thoughts, people tend to think to themselves when they're alone, or bored.

Or when trying to do an infodump about the background by Damien the vampire.

 

[RisRizRitz]

Some people talk to themselves in their heads all the time while others do it once or twice a month. Its nothing abnormal really.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Talking to yourself is a good skill for parenting. Parents who narrate what they are doing help their children develop language skills.

pushing a 22 pounds brown baby out.

That's twice the weight where the doctors will insist on cutting you open.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Some people talk to themselves in their heads all the time while others do it once or twice a month. Its nothing abnormal really.

Yeah, I meant when writing a character out.

While I do feel it is weird but acceptable IRL, I felt that the whole thing is poorly done in written works and the only time it worked was when Harry tried to tip off Snape about Sirius.

 

[CheertheDead]

This has been cruising in my head for awhile because I had never seen it as big of a problem as I made it out to be, but it seems that I was wrong. In the normal world, there are methods of speaking, but in a conversation there should always be two or more people participating in it.

Speaking to oneself and oneself only is odd, the fact that one would open their mouths to start making noises for their own listening pleasure is irritating to others around, causing the irritated to either look at the offender funnily and/ or rudely, call the mental institute about their runaway patient or start a makeshift exorcism by dogpiling them and beating them black and blue.

So as to reiterate, talking to oneself is odd and bad. This happens to extend in speaking inside the head.

The results I found in novels didn't help with the cause, Lith from Supreme Magus spoke to himself a lot of times and he is a wellknown psychopath. While others in SM also has the habit to inner monologue, I believe it is because of Lithification, similar to how Shirly's Jasonification where everyone in Monster slowly turn into a Jason Asano. Using SM and dragging Oracle Paths in, the MCs would inner monologue to speak with the girl in their heads most of the times, justifying their use of thought bubbles most of the times (but can they fucc in the head like the singer in Legendary Mechanic? Tbc) because they have an actual listener other than themselves.

In the very limited amount of novels I read (CN, JP, KR) , all characters express their thoughts with their actions, making them direct. The characters who are hiding their agendas are either doing it badly with a "nehehe" while rubbing their hands together like a housefly, having no signs of them containing any hidden agendas by doing a poker face or doing the constipated face as though they are pushing a 22 pounds brown baby out.

The thought process is also streamlined by mashing the entire thing with the plot, the background and what characters look like, meaning the inner monologue requires no symbols like inverted commas or square brackets when they smear all over the paragraphs like road kill.

So after speaking so many negatives on inner monologuing by and to oneself, is there anything good that comes up with talking to oneself, other than in my own case and work, expressing inferiority and self-worthlessness when the character has no one to talk to?

My narration is past tense 3rd person.

Thus, it is in stark contrast with the present tense of the inner thought even without the marking.

 

[Cipiteca396]

I honestly don't know how a (first person) story would work without inner monologue.

The character would be doing and saying things for seemingly inexplicable reasons- unless they took the time to explain their actions to a convenient audience stand-in.

Which is weird... Frankly, that's the thing that makes you look crazy. Why are you telling the dog your personal ambitions and trying to justify your actions? It doesn't even understand what you're saying. That's what thinking is for.

To give an example without an inner monologue; a character may suddenly take an action that's completely opposed to their previous action with no explanation or justification.
With the inner monologue, we know they felt guilty and tried to redeem themselves.
With the audience stand-in, they have to explain it... But that explanation is usually unsatisfactory. Or strange. Why are you telling the villain why you're killing him? Shouldn't he try to stop you now?

Maybe instead of lacking good examples, you just didn't notice them? Sorting out a person's thoughts from the story's narration can be subtle work, sometimes.

 

[CheertheDead]

Also.
I saw creative use of ‘…’ for thought while “…” is for speaking out loud.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Also.
I saw creative use of ‘…’ for thought while “…” is for speaking out loud.

Yeah I did that... and I hate it.

Because my almost legally blind eyesight coupled with astigmatism is shit on spoting one inverted comma from a double inverted.

I used this system after Supreme Magus.

 

[Cipiteca396]

I prefer italics for thoughts. This means you have to use bold for emphasis though. Which is kinda sad.
I use '...' for quotes(things that were said, but aren't being said now), "..." for dialogue, and "italics" for mental communication.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I prefer italics for thoughts. This means you have to use bold for emphasis though. Which is kinda sad.
I use '...' for quotes(things that were said, but aren't being said now), "..." for dialogue, and "italics" for mental communication.

I had used square brackets for thought bubbles and the effects are terrible imho.

And I did tried italics for thoughts too... until I decided I hated it and convert it all to single inverted commas.

So yeah, tons of options, all is shit thanks to execution.

 

[JenLeifire]

I prefer italics for thoughts. This means you have to use bold for emphasis though. Which is kinda sad.
I use '...' for quotes(things that were said, but aren't being said now), "..." for dialogue, and "italics" for mental communication.

I use italics also for toughts but still use it also for emphasize in spoken tags as I dont think its confusing. If you clearly mark it with " " when someone speaks and use italics to emphasize a word in it then I dont think anyone would see that one word as a thought process...I at least want to believe no one actually would think that way lol

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Uhhh... What are you? An NPC?

 

[Fortunis]

Inner monologues are one of the best resources to develop a character, it gives the audience a sense of closeness with the character, a motive they can understand beyond simple generic aspirations. Now like any tool in writing it can turn really detrimental if used as an information dump tool, they become redundant or there are no contrast to those monologues with actions. If you want an example you can read our current novel, it is told exclusively from the first person and you can see how different a character would be if you analyze it from an inner point of view versus an outer point of view. It is not a shameless plug, we are really proud of how our style of handling inner monologues works, and I hope it can be helpful.

 

[Anon2024]

Depends on the character. I've found inner monologues can be both good and bad. For a short series an inner monologue isn't bad because I can get to know a character within a short amount of time. In a long series I will get tired of the character's voice.

It's subjective. Some readers love it, some hate it. I write in both perspectives.

 

[patbateman123x]

This has been cruising in my head for awhile because I had never seen it as big of a problem as I made it out to be, but it seems that I was wrong. In the normal world, there are methods of speaking, but in a conversation there should always be two or more people participating in it.

Speaking to oneself and oneself only is odd, the fact that one would open their mouths to start making noises for their own listening pleasure is irritating to others around, causing the irritated to either look at the offender funnily and/ or rudely, call the mental institute about their runaway patient or start a makeshift exorcism by dogpiling them and beating them black and blue.

So as to reiterate, talking to oneself is odd and bad. This happens to extend in speaking inside the head.

The results I found in novels didn't help with the cause, Lith from Supreme Magus spoke to himself a lot of times and he is a wellknown psychopath. While others in SM also has the habit to inner monologue, I believe it is because of Lithification, similar to how Shirly's Jasonification where everyone in Monster slowly turn into a Jason Asano. Using SM and dragging Oracle Paths in, the MCs would inner monologue to speak with the girl in their heads most of the times, justifying their use of thought bubbles most of the times (but can they fucc in the head like the singer in Legendary Mechanic? Tbc) because they have an actual listener other than themselves.

In the very limited amount of novels I read (CN, JP, KR) , all characters express their thoughts with their actions, making them direct. The characters who are hiding their agendas are either doing it badly with a "nehehe" while rubbing their hands together like a housefly, having no signs of them containing any hidden agendas by doing a poker face or doing the constipated face as though they are pushing a 22 pounds brown baby out.

The thought process is also streamlined by mashing the entire thing with the plot, the background and what characters look like, meaning the inner monologue requires no symbols like inverted commas or square brackets when they smear all over the paragraphs like road kill.

So after speaking so many negatives on inner monologuing by and to oneself, is there anything good that comes up with talking to oneself, other than in my own case and work, expressing inferiority and self-worthlessness when the character has no one to talk to?

i had trouble with writing inner monologues too or whether i should even write them or not . I honestly believe it comes down to your character . Since you mentioned some characters that have inferiority complexes they would never say whats on their mind for the fear that people might judge them or at least that's what i think. One of my fav vn characters had a lot of interesting monologues but it wouldn't matter to the characters surrounding him since he'd just think about it in his head and since he would get no reaction out of anyone nothing given he never spoke his mind nothing would change .He would get no interesting input , no criticism either . And mind you one of his traits was that he was super blunt .In the novel i am writing one of the traits of my character is that he is super blunt too so to make things interesting I make him read his monologue out loud and see how other characters react to it . It could be anything from his life philosophies to whatever twisted opinion he has own a topic or discussion . He could get a reply out out of some characters , chuckles out of others .In a way nothing in the novel goes unnoticed . Now i am not a great writer by any means but this is something I've found really enjoyable while writing because no word I've written would go unnoticed , if the reader skips em because most people just skim through stuff , at least the characters in the world would hear it out .I still leave room for some inner thoughts , but the most important bits are always out in the open .That's just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt .

 

[BlackKnightX]

Get your point across quickly, plain and simple.

It’s not realistic, but answer me this: what’s the last fiction you’ve read that‘s extremely realistic to the point that you’re mistaken it for a real story? If you have read one, then go back and try to find some inconsistencies. I’m sure you’ll find some.

You see, fiction is a lie. No matter how hard you try to imitate the real world, it’s still a product of your mind filled with biases, personal fantasies, and fears. Heck, even when we try to recount a real life story to someone, it’s not gonna be as realistic no matter how hard you try to make it. It’s just not possible.

Especially in fiction—it’s the biggest lie every author uses to entertain themself and the others. Some use it to find the truth of the world, and that makes sense in a way. But at the end of the day, a lie is still a lie no matter how much you’ve been manipulated to believe that it’s not.

So, if you just simply let go, see fiction as a lie to entertain yourself, turn on your suspension of disbelief, you’ll have fun. Like I said, it’s not realistic, and it shouldn’t be. It is a lie. And if you understand that, instead of going against it, why not just have fun with it?

With all these ramblings out of the way, my point is: direct internal-monologue is just an unrealistic way to get your point across quickly. It’s not real. It’s a lie. So get on with it and have fun!

Peace.

 

[trinitys_gadget]

Funny you ask. Inner monologue, inner dialogue (were you imagine somebody replying), vocalization, and conversation are cognitively distinct. Each one is useful and done by normal people. However, for the purposes if narrative, inner thoughts tend to bog down a story and can interrupt a reader's immersion.
In general, I recommend against describing inner thoughts in detail, but if you insist, study some examples of stream-of-conscious done well, like part 1 of 'The Sound and the Fury' or 'Flowers for Algenon', don't do it wrong like 'Winter's Heart'. Reread your work carefully and make sure the narrative keeps advancing; if it bores you to read or write, it will bore the reader.