Do you think an overreliance on inner monologue can lead to writing that is too "on the nose?" Is subtext a better way to read into a character's thoughts and motivations?
Reading Between The Lines
- Thread starter ldlago
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I think writing that is too on the nose leads to writing that is too on the nose. Interiority can be too on the nose; so can dialogue; so even can description. Moreover, subtext and interiority are not mutually exclusive; indeed, not at all. Narration can reflect different amounts of insight into the POV character's thought process, and can be more or less direct in telling readers about those processes. For example, some of the most fascinating unreliable narrators are rendered with a tremendous amount of interiority, but it's the subtext of that rendering that tells the reader that the narrator is unreliable.
The main danger of an "overreliance" (your word) on interiority is a passive protagonist who sits around navel gazing and doesn't do much to help or hinder her goals. But that's orthogonal to how on the nose the interiority is -- it's a different problem, and it can arise regardless of how oblique the interiority is or is not.
Stories that don't have any sort of inner monologue (whether it be via "......" he thought or He thought about ......) are kinda weird to me, they feel very "pulled back" and detached from the character(s). That works for things like shows and movies because you have camera angles/lenses/filters, editing techniques (wipes, cuts), music (diegetic or otherwise) and the actors themselves to convey what the character is thinking, we don't need a "voiceover" of thought or a literal narrator (like in Arrested Development). But a book only has the words we're being given so it's harder to make those inferences. The pov character isn't going to be conveying to us every facial movement or thing like that to tell us what their thoughts are, so it's a lot harder.
But also I don't need to hear every thought/reaction of the pov character, either. Their (external) dialogue, actions and physical sensations can tell us what they're thinking. But if they tend to think X but emote Y, then getting that through internal stuff is important (as Lakey talks about).
Of course, people are complex, and it's entirely possible that the character has motivations that even they are not aware of, as they're working towards a need that they don't realize they have. Shinji Ikari's WANT is to not get in the robot and not die but also he wants to keep his friends from dying, but his NEED is to feel wanted/loved by others. It takes a while for him to figure out that that's his need but his actions are still influenced by that (though it is shown to us from the beginning since he wants to connect with his dad, we just don't know how deep-rooted this need is 'til later). So we need non-direct things to communicate he has this need.
But also I don't need to hear every thought/reaction of the pov character, either. Their (external) dialogue, actions and physical sensations can tell us what they're thinking. But if they tend to think X but emote Y, then getting that through internal stuff is important (as Lakey talks about).
Of course, people are complex, and it's entirely possible that the character has motivations that even they are not aware of, as they're working towards a need that they don't realize they have. Shinji Ikari's WANT is to not get in the robot and not die but also he wants to keep his friends from dying, but his NEED is to feel wanted/loved by others. It takes a while for him to figure out that that's his need but his actions are still influenced by that (though it is shown to us from the beginning since he wants to connect with his dad, we just don't know how deep-rooted this need is 'til later). So we need non-direct things to communicate he has this need.
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