Stream of consciousness writing?

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Daveyboyz

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I found this an interesting thread. I am fairly well read and reasonably intelligent but have not had a great education, stream of conciousness is not a form of writing I really know anything about.

Someone mentioned Marquez who is one of my favourite authors. Does he do this? I never noticed.

My book has alot of writing as if I am narrating what I am doing and thinking directly at the reader. Does that make it a SOC memoir? I use it as tool to explain different subjects, to allow the reader to see my character and how I percieve things. I also use language how I would speak it rather than how I would think it. (My thoughts are far too abstract for anyone but me to follow)

It sounds like I am going to have a hard enough time selling my book, I hope this is not another hurdle to overcome.
 
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Sheila Muirenn

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In my writing, I think I slip into the SOC side of the spectrum when I'm already in a tight POV, wanting to give a feel for how a character's mind works, and adding all the necessary nouns and verbs and punctuation would pull away from that or insert a sense of the narrator I don't want. I only do it for a few lines at a time. Maybe that's because I'm focusing more on how one character's interior self plays against another's. It's tough, and I find myself spending hours on the small sections where these sorts of slides take place. But they're also some of my favorites. The more a novel is about one character's process, the more I think SOC would be appropriate.


If anyone is still into this topic, it would be fun to look through our WIP and see where we slide on this continuum and it effects the reader.

I'm guilty. But hopefully have thrown enough grappling hooks so as not to lose the reader entirely.

I slip into SOC when I slip into another corner of the character's mind. But that corner should rest more often than not.

Else I drive my reader insane.

:evil
 

starscape

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Your No. 1 priority, ( mine too, ) is to let the readers understand the SOC and follow the character. If they can't, they will mostly give up.


I found this an interesting thread. I am fairly well read and reasonably intelligent but have not had a great education, stream of conciousness is not a form of writing I really know anything about.

Someone mentioned Marquez who is one of my favourite authors. Does he do this? I never noticed.

My book has alot of writing as if I am narrating what I am doing and thinking directly at the reader. Does that make it a SOC memoir? I use it as tool to explain different subjects, to allow the reader to see my character and how I percieve things. I also use language how I would speak it rather than how I would think it. (My thoughts are far too abstract for anyone but me to follow)

It sounds like I am going to have a hard enough time selling my book, I hope this is not another hurdle to overcome.
 

Vito

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I haven't read very much fiction that features SOC. Does "The Bear" by William Faulkner count? How 'bout Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans? I've never finished reading anything written by Joyce, and I'm not familiar with Marquez.

All I know is that SOC writing on the printed page has an extremely funky visual effect that I don't like. For me, it's kind of like looking into a bowl of Alpha Bits breakfast cereal and trying to make sense of the scrambled letters as they float, submerge, and reappear in the milk.
 

WKolodzieski

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My entire novel is in a stream-of-consciousness style. Sometimes it'll work, often not. Good for all those novelists that do make it work.
 

karmalinguist

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My current novel is first person-present. It's not quite SOC, but there is a fair amount of monologue. I have experimented with this over my past couple novels to little avail, but I believe the format is a good fit for this story.
I know agents will probably turn their nose up at it but we'll see!
 
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