Over on LIVING HAPPY, I talk a tiny bit about stream of consciousness, which has made me think about it here, too. So, I’m going to take a pause about writing about action scenes and go with this flow, which feels like a pretty stream of consciousness thing to do, right?
WHAT IS STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS WRITING?
Studiobinder has a great definition.
“Stream of consciousness writing is a method of writing that captures the myriad of thoughts and feelings that pass through the mind. This method’s purpose is to allow these thoughts to pass through without any inhibitors. It’s quite literally capturing the “stream” of your consciousness.
“The term actually originated in psychology before the literary world ever got a hold of it. It was coined in 1855 by Alexander Bain in the first edition of “The Senses and the Intellect.” William James in 1890 used it in “The Principles of Psychology.” But the first person to apply it to a literary text was May Sinclair, discussing Dorothy Richardson’s use of the term in her novel, “Pointed Roofs” in 1915.
“This is different from an internal monologue. Internal monologue relays thoughts in a linear and logical way. Stream of consciousness can be marked often by non-linear and unusual grammatical or syntax structures, for it represents the more natural flow of thought. This is why the nature of this is often long-winded writing.”
It is different from internal monologue because internal monologue is usually linear.
It is different from internal monologue because internal monologue is usually logical.
It is different from internal monologue because internal monologue is usually cogent and moves from point a to point be nicely.
HOW CAN WRITERS USE IT?
There are a few ways that writers can use this to our benefit
SHOW ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The cool thing about stream of consciousness in your novel is that you can place it in there to show that your protagonist’s normal state of consciousness is all messed up because of what is happening. Maybe they are drunk or drugged or in the matrix, man, you know? Or maybe in a trance or hallucinating or dreaming.
Maybe your narrative normally looks like this:
I walked over to the dog and pet him. He shed on me.
You can use stream of consciousness narrative technique to show how whacked out your character is now by writing like this:
Dog. Woofie woofie wow wow. Let' me crawl to you, baby boy puppy. Yeah. Look. Petting the dog makes bits of dog come off on your hand. Fur. Is. Everywhere. Is fur hair? Is hair fur? What would life be like without posable thumbs? Just putting your paw flat.
PULLS US IN CLOSER
If you look at the two examples (so sorry about those), you can see how much closer we are to the protagonist in the second example. It’s like we’re right inside their mind. The distance between the reader and the character are pretty minimal.
BRAINSTORMS
Studiobinder writes:
“Stream of consciousness writing isn’t just for the narrative. It is also a brainstorming technique to encourage creativity and intuitive writing. This can be especially helpful for writer’s block.”
RULES BE DAMNED
This style of writing is really about ignoring all the rules of writing that you’ve learned be for.
Ignore sentence structure.
Ignore grammar.
Use 8,000 em-dashes. It’s all good.
As Jericho Writers says, “Our thoughts very rarely come as fully formed sentences, so when writing stream of consciousness, you need to embrace that and learn to write your inner thoughts.”
WRITING EXERCISE
You guessed it. This week we’re doing a stream of consciousness exercise and it’s from the lovely Writers Digest. Don’t think. Don’t worry about spelling. Just go.
“Every city I've ever lived in, I've had a restaurant that I couldn't stay away from—I'm a creature of habit! But the best places tended to be off the beaten path, sometimes without even a sign on the door or a window to the outside.
“For today's prompt, write about a restaurant that can only be described as a hole in the wall.”
PLACE TO SUBMIT
The editors of West Branch welcome submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation. We normally read unsolicited manuscripts between August 1st and April 1st. We print only original, unpublished work. For accepted work, we purchase First North American serial rights.
Payment is awarded for accepted works in the amount of $50 per submission of poetry, and $.05/word for prose with a maximum payment of $100. Additionally, we provide each contributor with two copies of the issue in which his/her work appears and a one-year subscription to West Branch.
Please review the submission guidelines below before submitting using the online submission manager:
All manuscripts should be paginated, with the author's name on each page. Prose should be double-spaced and include a word count.
Please send no more than six poems or thirty pages of prose. You may submit up to three pieces of short-form fiction (flash, short-shorts, etc.) so long as the total page count remains under fifteen pages. Poems and multiple short-form pieces should be saved and uploaded as a single file.
The submission manager accepts most document types; we prefer to receive files in .DOC or .RTF format.
We prefer to receive no more than two submissions from a single contributor in a given reading period. We make periodic checks for contributors who have reached the 2-submission limit, and reject any additional pieces submitted by those contributors. However, you will still be able to log in to view your account, and reaching the 2-submission limit will not affect pieces already under consideration. Please note also that the submission manager will only allow you to have one piece under consideration at any given time.
Simultaneous submissions must be clearly marked as such in the comments section. If any of the work is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw your own West Branch submission immediately.
Our usual response time is ten weeks or less--often much less--but if we find your material interesting you may wait longer to hear from us. Please DO query if more than four months have passed since your submission, via e-mail at westbranch@bucknell.edu.
Book reviews are typically arranged by assignment, and we publish only poetry reviews. If you are interested in writing reviews, please query with a sample. We currently pay $200 per assigned review.
Please acquaint yourself with the magazine before submitting; sample back issues are available for only $3. Subscriptions are available at $10 for one year and $16 for two years. For subscription information, selected work, and news, see our website.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION
Write, Submit, Support! is starting up again at the Writing Barn and there’s a cool craft night (free) coming up ahead of that this week.
From the Writing Barn “Our 6-month Write. Submit. Support. course offers structure and support not only to our writing lives but also to the roller coaster ride of submissions. We offer support whether you’re submitting to agents or, if agented, you’re weathering submissions to editors. We discuss passes that come in, submissions requests, the feedback we aren’t sure about, where we are feeling directed to go in our writing lives, and more.”
Here’s the class with my black and white self. :) Also, I do individual coaching and editing.
The amazing Jessica Haster will be my teaching assistant. Here are our bios:
Writer, podcaster, editor, and writing coach, Carrie Jones’s award-winning fiction has been translated into multiple languages, and ended up on both New York Times and international best sellers lists, and she has received the Independent Book Publisher’s Award, Maine Literary Awards and multiple press awards, as well as landing on multiple best book lists.
Writing across genres, Carrie was also an award-winning newspaper editor, on-call firefighter, columnist, poetry editor, and photographer, received a MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and was awarded the honor of Distinguished Alum. Her podcast, “Dogs are Smarter than People” and “Loving the Strange” have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. In the past two years, she’s worked with over 500 writers, helping to give them the skills and confidence to get their stories out into the world. You can find out more about it and her weird, quirky life at Carrie Jones Books.
Teaching Assistant Jessica Haster writes picture books through young adult books and lives in Minnesota with her husband and three young children. She has taken many classes at The Writing Barn but WSS with Carrie Jones is her absolute favorite. As a former educator, Jessica believes that laughter is the key to creating life-long readers. She is a member of CTC, 12×12, and SCBWI.
You can register for that free craft night here or apply for the course here.