Have you ever saw the drama Antigone by Sophocles? There was a famous monologue in Creon’s voice….”Yea, this, my son, should by thy heart’s fixed law…then we should not be called weaker than a woman.” Maybe the perfect piece of a classic monologue from the legend’s grafting.
Interior monologues are tricky to write. In this article, you will find useful tips on how to write a monologue and improve your stories.
How to Write a Monologue to Advance Your Story
Even the most skilled writers may struggle with certain things when writing their stories and novels or developing their characters. The most common problems concern grammar and spelling but these things can be easily checked and improved. Besides, a lot of problems usually arise when it comes to content or style. To help you avoid common mistake during the writing process, we provide you with writing tips on how to write a monologue given by the experienced writers from professional essay writing service.
What is Monologue?
The monologue is a literary device that is very commonly used by poets, playwrights, and writers when the speaker or the character expresses his own thoughts about some significant experience and addresses directly to the audience or to another character. You can find monologues in plays, films, poems, and novels. You should differentiate between monologues and soliloquy when the characters speak to themselves or do it as self-reflection.
Monologues can be highly effective because they reveal the character’s inner thought processes, his intentions, and in this way, they give a better perspective to the audience about the characters’ personalities.
Monologues can be of two types:
- Internal monologues are often found in novels, films, and plays and this particular technique is called a stream of consciousness. Here, the character expresses his thoughts about something so that the audience can learn about his experiences which otherwise might not be revealed. The internal monologues can be of two types too: direct when an author does not show his presence and indirect, when an author appears as a guide, commentator, presenter, and selector.
- Dramatic monologues when a character speaks to a silent listener. Dramatic monologues have theatrical qualities and are often used in poetry.
The main purpose of writing monologues is to communicate some idea or viewpoint through words. Monologues are basic sources using which writers can express thoughts and emotions of their characters.
How to Write an Interior Monologue
Interior monologue is a literary term for a part of the text that reveals character’s thoughts in a novel. In real life, we call it an internal monologue but, actually, these two terms mean precisely the same things. Interior monologues offer great advantages that novels have over films because you can never hear thoughts of a movie character. Interior monologues give readers a window into a character’s mind. Through interior monologues, readers can establish a more intimate relationship with a character of a book and understand a character’s mindset. Interior monologues were perfected in the stream of consciousness novels. Here are some writing tips how to write them.
- Find some examples of interior monologues written by great writers such as William Faulkner, James Joyce, and Joseph Heller, read and analyze them. You may even copy some parts from them by hand to feel the rhythm of the language.
- Think about the character in your story that you think would suit a monologue and develop it. Your monologue should inform your readers about a character’s mindset so you have to know his mind well. The interior monologue should reveal what a certain character feels and thinks about a particular person or situation and what things motivate his actions. You should paint a mental picture for your readers by adding some vivid details.
- Think about the monologue topic so you should decide why you want to include interior monologue into your story. For example, you can highlight and important character trait or provide some details on major themes of your story.
- Find the right time and the right places in your plot to include interior monologues. Using monologues in the beginning of your story is not a good idea because you need your readers to get hooked and engaged. Start with an action and later you may elaborate on the role of your character in your plot. You should take into account that that monologues slow down the plot so they can work well between action scenes.
- Know when you should avoid internal monologues. It would much more exciting for your readers that characters revealed some internal information to someone else. You will add another layer of interaction between different characters if you replace some monologues by actual dialogues. Besides, you should not reveal the entire inner world of your characters to keep your readers intrigued. You should place some information like bait that will motivate your readers to read further and enjoy every little reveal.
- Keep the perfect balance. Monologues are great to get your readers engaged with the protagonist but the truth is that people actually like to read actions and dialogues more. Do not replace your action scenes and dialogues with monologues.
Interior monologues are tools and like any other writing techniques, they are most powerful when you use them to achieve goals you set for a scene. Use these easy tips and online essay service when writing and your stories are sure to improve greatly. You may even try to find out how your favorite writers treat monologues in their works. Check how interior monologues are used in the books you are fond of and find out what the writers did right or wrong.
