Do You Have Inner Monolougue?

[joannekwan]

The only text running through my brain either comes from memories or imaginings of other people (real or fictional) or if I'm reading words written by someone else. From my own voice, it comes when I'm thinking and plotting of something to say or write or if I just think of commentary that I would never type out/say publicly like "Wow, this is bad." It's like playing videos or sound bytes in my head.

Other than that, most of my thoughts come as imagery to me. I don't have a narrator that just goes on and on inside.

[TAMAnnoying]

If I didn’t talk to myself how would I ever convince myself to not have free time? 8)

[gone_flower]

I feel like my insecurity and anxiety talks to me whenever I experience something embarrassing or overthink situations, basically scolding myself for the actions I've taken and regretting them. It sucks but it is what it is I tend to overthink a lot, thus my inner monologue.

[allenT]

It's one of my worst skills, maybe because i'm a pantser when it comes to writing dialogues and monologues. Always envy those who can come out beautiful lengthy monologues like in Beastars.

[IndigoShirtProd]

No, no, not like that. What I was asking was whether or not you have an internal voice. Here's the definition.

An internal monologue, also called self-talk, inner speech, inner discourse or internal discourse, is a person's inner voice which provides a running verbal monologue of thoughts while they are conscious. It is usually tied to a person's sense of self.

[cherrystark]

My inner monologue shifts between plotting my series, daydreaming that I'm a fierce, warrior queen, and the negative- no one is ever going to love me and I'll never be more than the "lady's maid"/built-in babysitter. (I am trying to improve my self talk but it's hard.)

[allenT]

oh sorry 'bout that. I thought it's about the characters.

I personally don't self-talk like characters, at least not in full sentences.

[scribesunlimited]

All the time.
That's how I write screenplays. I simply put myself into the script and "act" the way I want it to look on screen. I imagine every script writer does that though. As far as comics, it's the same thing. But you have to keep tabs on your characters, how they act, what they are like, their motivation for each scene, etc. When you know your characters inside and act, you can "act" for them, and make the dialogue POP.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Do you talk yourself through conversations, like what do you talk to yourself about?

[scribesunlimited]

Do you talk yourself through conversations, like what do you talk to yourself about?

I was bitten by the Hollywood bug early in life and took some acting classes. So, when I have two or more characters that share the screen, I just "act" for all of them. I worked on a TV series project once that featured five men sharing a brother's mansion together, who had just lost his wife, and it was a sitcom. So I had to act out five different people, with completely different characteristics. I had to sit at my desk and envision the scene, and then "play" it out.

It's quite a talent to have and honestly, if you don't mind looking silly about it, I heartily suggest every writer give it a shot. You'll do much better when it comes to dialogue, for sure.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I'm not really talking "through characters", I mean more like in every day life. Do you have conversations with yourself?

[scribesunlimited]

Oh yeah, definitely.
Of course, I try to make sure no one's around to listen but me.

[gmaximin]

wow... the 'no' % is that low....! no wonder no one understand me...
I'm feeling all weird now... but my thoughts are almost exclusively visual, or sensual... colors, textures, music... but definitely no inner voice talking... sometimes, i do picture words, and link between words, like a organized structure of words...
Conscious or unconscious (like in dreams), I'm visualizing my thoughts. I always put that on the account of juggling with too many languages (chinese french english), so even when I argue or discuss with people, I'm using a lot of drawing, graphs, figures, gesture, to express my ideas... I'm awful at speeches...

You made me realize that my comics is the same somehow. I'm trying to visually conceptualize a notion or concept... so I translate a word in image, because that's that my brain does...

[azzy-m]

I wouldn't say I have full-on conversations with myself, it's more like:

"Man the intricacies of the effects on social media is so interesting. I wonder if people have made studies about it. Which reminds me, I should probably do my research assignment. Man, I really don't want to do group assignments right now... I want to work on my comic. Oh yeah, plot point a should be in season 1, instead of 2. I wonder how I can put more scenes of character development in that part of the story-"

Does-does that count?? lmao-

[darthmongoose]

I can play through a memory or a hypothetical scenario, like a scene in my head with a lot of clarity, with voice performance, visuals etc. but I don't have a single ongoing narrative in words in my head as a natural. My thoughts aren't linear enough, so it's really just more like a constant riot of sensations and ideas flying off in all directions. Occasionally for fun I might narrate my life as I do it in the style of a book I've been reading, but it's not how I operate by default.
Chances are, if there's a conversation or monologue running through my head while I'm doing something, it's completely unrelated to the thing I'm doing. If I tried to make a character in a comic whose "internal monologue" was like mine, it'd be like... their head would be surrounded by five different fragmented ideas tangentially related to what's going on in any given panel, which might be words or images.

Playing through a scene with imaginary characters is more like a coping mechanism I developed as a kid to escape from the overwhelming chaos of my brain's natural tendency to over-process and over-think every little idea and bit of stimulus. Scenes are linear, so it's relaxing to just block out everything else and focus on this one scenario.

[scribesunlimited]

According to my experience, you CAN'T create a story, any story, without talking it through, whether it's out loud or in your head. At some point, you open your mouth or your mind, and you visualize what someone will say or do.

See, some people can just think these thoughts and not actually "talk". Me, I most certainly have to talk. I can't visualize until I actually HEAR what my characters are saying, and how. if they have accents especially, I need to HEAR it. Even if I'm writing a scene with no dialogue at all, I have to hear what is going on to help me work it out.

Also, I have a terrible stammer since I was two years old. It's hard for me to speak to others so me talking to myself while I work out a script or comic panel, or book, or story, is my way to practice. I don't stutter if I talk when no one's around to hear.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Yes, this counts very much! I do this occasionally though I do try to stay focused for sake of getting things done.

[TheDoublekey]

Yeah, I often speak to myself and sometimes I'm afraid someone might see me and deem me as crazy . I usually do it when I'm totally alone in a room, I walk around it and have conversations with an imaginary interlocutor (which is myself in the end). I speak to myself whenever I want to plan something, or whenever I'm angry and I need to get everything out, but I mostly use it to flash out my inspiration for my projects.
I often times discuss about the plot of the story, the characters, the strucuture and in some cases I fully analyze my own comic and make new connections and references which could make it even better.

So, summed up... yes I do have inner monologues

[scribesunlimited]

I think that's the hard part, staying focused while I'm talking. I hear myself talking while I write and suddenly my mind is saying, "Hey, I can hear you!" and I'm like, "Shut up, brain! I'm trying to work this scene out!" So yeah, even writing this right now, I'm thinking of five other things in my head, so talking out loud also trains my focus. You're more often to get back on track if, say, you're writing and suddenly a song starts playing in your head, and you suddenly break out with a monologue, or read what you've already put out on the page.

Another good reason to monologue. Actually, it's NOT. Reading out loud is simply normal practice to make sure everything sounds right too.

And don't tell me none of you read out loud, because you know you do. Even if it's a whisper.

[Zaboem]

For me, it's about half and half. I voted not sure.