Internal Monologue
01-31-2020, 04:34 AM (This post was last modified: 01-31-2020, 04:38 AM by Labster.)
01-31-2020, 04:34 AM (This post was last modified: 01-31-2020, 04:38 AM by Labster.)
I came across this story today, about how some people have an internal monologue, and some don't: Today I Learned That Not Everyone Has An Internal Monologue And It Has Ruined My Day. It turns out that some people just think that the internal monologue is only a trope, not a thing real people do; and of course other real people do it.
Since this is a writer's forum, there are a couple questions I'm curious about: Do you have an internal voice? Can you have a dialogue with yourself without speaking aloud or writing? Do you tend to start your stories based around dialogue?
Hypothesis: most of us writers have an internal monologue, because we express ourselves through words.
When you write, remember that everyone really, really perceives the world differently. It's not just different goals and all, characters' experience of reality can be different. Some women can see an extra shade of green with a fourth cone -- and given all the color disagreements I've had with my mother, she must be one of them. Some people really don't have a strong sense of taste. To the extent that when other people talk about their favorite food, they just assume that everyone else is making a fashion choice, not that they like pizza for its taste quale. Aphantasics think that "the mind's eye" is really just a metaphor, and are surprised to learn that most people really can draw visual images in their mind.
I don't have a particularly strong sense of smell, which I think limits my writing. I really only became aware of it by reading Jitterbug Perfume, which really beat into me (pun intended) that there's a whole world of scent out there that I really don't experience -- that the women at the perfume counter really are discerning between subtle floral scents. On the other hand, I'm not so scentless that a job in nursing or waste management sounds appealing to me, either. It really doesn't bother some people.
Oh, and answering my own questions, I do have internal monologues and dialogues. I usually "hear" what I'm reading (except computer languages), in my brain it "sounds" normal even though it would be too fast for speech. I quite often start a scene with snippets of dialogue, and start to grow the description around it.
Since this is a writer's forum, there are a couple questions I'm curious about: Do you have an internal voice? Can you have a dialogue with yourself without speaking aloud or writing? Do you tend to start your stories based around dialogue?
Hypothesis: most of us writers have an internal monologue, because we express ourselves through words.
When you write, remember that everyone really, really perceives the world differently. It's not just different goals and all, characters' experience of reality can be different. Some women can see an extra shade of green with a fourth cone -- and given all the color disagreements I've had with my mother, she must be one of them. Some people really don't have a strong sense of taste. To the extent that when other people talk about their favorite food, they just assume that everyone else is making a fashion choice, not that they like pizza for its taste quale. Aphantasics think that "the mind's eye" is really just a metaphor, and are surprised to learn that most people really can draw visual images in their mind.
I don't have a particularly strong sense of smell, which I think limits my writing. I really only became aware of it by reading Jitterbug Perfume, which really beat into me (pun intended) that there's a whole world of scent out there that I really don't experience -- that the women at the perfume counter really are discerning between subtle floral scents. On the other hand, I'm not so scentless that a job in nursing or waste management sounds appealing to me, either. It really doesn't bother some people.
Oh, and answering my own questions, I do have internal monologues and dialogues. I usually "hear" what I'm reading (except computer languages), in my brain it "sounds" normal even though it would be too fast for speech. I quite often start a scene with snippets of dialogue, and start to grow the description around it.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto