Inner Dialogue. Or should I say, Inner Conversation.

Discussion in 'Dialogue Development' started by Blue Night, Dec 17, 2011.

  1. Blue Night

    Blue Night Active Member

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    Alex W: It’s always refreshing to hear from someone who is part of the solution and not part of the problem. I respect your posts and thank you for them.

    When I post a piece of my work on this forum, it is because I could really use input.

    And I really appreciate people, such as you (and Jhunter), who can actually understand the question posted. You project logic, rationale and stability. You didn’t go off course and question the words. You stuck with the subject of italics. And you gave me a concrete example of it being used in literature. That alone is immeasurable.

    Earlier, you mentioned Inbox Messaging. I sure hope I can take a rain-check on that.
     
  2. Raki

    Raki New Member

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    I think it's a matter of like and dislike on the writer's side and really has nothing to do with whether they are good or not. "Good" writers may not need to resort to fancy font. "Good" writers may also not need to use commas or quotation marks or half a dozen other tools writers have. But "good" writers do, some of them anyway. It's a question of personal taste and style (and what they want to do), and the "good" is nothing more than subjective bullshit. The fact is, writers (both good and bad, in my eyes) use italics and don't use italics. If it was only so easy to draw the line between good and bad with the use of italics...

    I also think it's believable for a character to have an inner dialogue with himself, whether he's schizophrenic or not. I do it in real life, and as far as I know I'm not schizophrenic (oh, but couldn't I be surprised :)). I mostly do it when I'm uncertain about something, as a way to gauge my reasoning and options. Example:

    Are you sure you want to go through with this?

    I don't know. What are my options?

    Well, you can sit there and be the couch potato you were destined to be and nothing more will result from your life. Or, you can get off your lazy ass and test the waters, and just maybe, everything will work out for the best and you'll live happily ever f'n after. Really ... you have nothing to lose.

    Okay, here I go.

    Or sometimes, it's me asking the questions and the other voice answering:

    What am I going to do?

    You know what you need to do.

    What? Just say it.

    You already know. Just do it.

    Now, do I need that "other voice" to tell me my options? No, I do not. But I do like to use it to question myself. I don't attach a name or a face with that other voice, only a voice and it "sounds" like mine, just in a different tone, a questioning tone usually. So I don't see it as odd when characters do this also, and there are a lot of characters in a lot of books who do this (which tells me that a lot of people (or at least writers) must do this and if it's the definition of schizophrenia, then we may all be in trouble :)). Of course, it can be used to show a schizophrenic person, too, but then the other voice usually has a different voice, a name, and perhaps a face. In either case, I treat it much the same as dialogue. I give it narrative elements, the occasional tag, setting, among other things (basically, more than what's in the above two examples...those are just cut-and-dry).

    @Blue Night, something I may suggest you try ... Since your narrative is in first person and the piece is (or appears to be) present tense (you fixed this right?), just italicize the second-person elements of it (e.g., "You must know. You’re the guilty one." and "She saw what every day?" and "You can’t go on like this. What did she see?" and so on), the portions where his mind is "speaking" to him and see what you think of it like that. The other portions I don't think need to be italicized in first person because we are already inside your head.
     
  3. Alex W

    Alex W New Member

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    No problem at all, hopefully i've helped atleast a little! The second thought process in italics does seem like the best route to go, or atleast that's how i'd do it anyway.

    And of course! If you need any help with it at all or anything like that then let me know :) Happy to help.
     
  4. Raki

    Raki New Member

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    I don't know. I think either can fit the context I listed above, but a schizophrenic person seems more likely to have a conversation with himself (i.e., someone talking to him who's not really there than someone with multiple personality disorder (do the different personalities usually communicate with each other outside of literature?)).
     
  5. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    yes, and that's exactly why i used that clinical term, raki... patients with schizophrenia often do talk to themselves, while those with MPD don't usually have their various personalities communicating with each other...

    please note that i wrote 'don't have to'... meaning that good writers have the skill/ability to [and often do] make use of methods other than a glaring change of font to let their readers know when a character is thinking...
     
  6. lostinwebspace

    lostinwebspace Active Member

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    No problem. I'm glad I can help.

    In that case, if he doesn't suffer from MPD or schizophrenia, maybe the duality should be nixed. To explain my thinking, if you don't want to present a two-person conversation or at least the idea of one, just make it a stream of thought. Here's what I mean (and I'll retain the italics because it's up to you if you want it or not):

    It's all presented as one character, so there's none of that back-and-forth that suggests another personality. But you can keep that inner conflict by having him question himself, much like people who answer their own questions.

    I think the idea is that it's not a comfortable font for the eye, more so for people with dislexia or other impairments. It's used for so much already--emphasis, some titles, foreign words, etc.--that, to find another excuse would, first, make too much of that tool and, second, undercut the emphasis of when it's used to good effect, just like how peanut buter is awesome but a jar of peanut butter is not. Is it bad writing to use it for thoughts? That's up to opinion. But, just like any tool, there are times to use it and times to not use it. A jackhammer is a tool, but I wouldn't use it to hang a picture. In those gray areas of the written word, only you can decide when italics is necessary for you, though. I think everyone would agree never to use it for people's names, but there's a fence people sit on about inner thought.

    Now, I've said I like it for thoughts, but I will gladly take it out (and am very prepared to) if an agent or publishing house requests, and I won't think twice about doing it. I just have to make sure my thoughts are obvious to the reader in other ways.
     
  7. Blue Night

    Blue Night Active Member

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    Deep stuff webspace...deep stuff. I took a lot from that.
     

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