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The biggest advantage books have over movies and TV is the ability to get deep inside the head of the characters. This ability to understand perfectly the thoughts and motivations of a character can allow a reader to feel part of the story and even part of the character but to allow the reader to slip into the mind of the character is something that the writer of fiction must practice.

First, you must understand the ways that you can portray their thoughts. Your choices come down to direct or indirect. Direct thoughts are written similar to dialog. An example of direct thoughts is. "Those spikes are razor sharp, my only chance is the lanyard I got from my sister." while indirect thoughts come in the voice of the narrator "Tom knew that the spikes were razor sharp and as he struggled for an answer he felt the lanyard his sister had made and he saw the solution"

Each of these will have a measured effect on how the reader relates to your character. Using direct thoughts is similar to a first person view in a movie. You are in their head looking out their eyes and it will make you feel closer to the character. Indirect on the other hand is watching them from a bit of a distance making you feel a bit more removed from the character.

Whichever of these you pick it is important to remain consistent not only with the way you relate to the character but with the choice of who your point of view character is. It is possible in a long piece of work to change the point of view character a few times, but this should be done in scene breaks or chapter breaks. Nothing is more jarring for a reader than to suddenly realizing that the character he thought was the point of view character isn't anymore.

Next of importance is to not overwhelm the reader. Our minds in real life are often like a freight train. They work constantly looking over the world. This is a bad idea for most stories. Like the monologue in a play it can be effective, but far more often it is simply a monologue. Just because you can get into the character's head doesn't mean you want a running commentary on your writing by this character.

It is also worth noting that there are many other useful tricks that can be used by using the thoughts of your character. By having the character narrate the story you can create a unique point of view and even a unreliable narrator that can make the reader look at your story in a completely different way.

Slipping inside the head of a character is a powerful device, and something writing does better than any other media, it is also a great deal of fun, but before you begin you should think carefully about why you are looking at their thoughts and what you are gaining because while seeing the thoughts of the character is a powerful tool it is one that, like every tool in writing comes with a cost.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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