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or within the introspection itself. Examples of thinking verbs include: think, hope, wonder, reason, realize, decide. These plain-vanilla verbs have the advantage of being nearly as unobtrusive as the dialogue attribution "said." There are, of course, many synonyms for these verbs, but other verbs of thought (such as surmised or ruminated) may distract or annoy the reader and are best avoided.

NARRATIVE DISTANCE. According to Brown and King, ". . . how you handle your interior monologue depends almost entirely on your narrative distance." As stated by Nancy Kress, "Distance is the measure of how far you, the author, are standing from your character as you tell the story."

Narrative distance ranges on a continuum from:

* DISTANT-observing from the outside, as with the omniscient point of view, to

* INTIMATE-perceiving the world through the character's mind and senses.

Regarding introspection, the more distant the narrator is from the character, the more necessary are devices (such as attribution tags, italics, and thought verbs) to delineate the passages as thoughts and who is doing the thinking.

PARAGRAPH TREATMENT. Introspection is often embedded within a paragraph that also includes action or dialogue, but sometimes introspection warrants its own paragraph. As stated by Browne and King, "Where you have a longer passage of interior monologue and are still writing with some narrative distance, it sometimes helps to set it off in its own paragraph, especially when the passage signals a change of mood."

CONSISTENCY. With so many choices available to present a character's thoughts, there is a real risk of confusion. According to Kress, "Whatever presentation you choose for character's thoughts, use it consistently so that your reader, once she's caught on, doesn't have to make mental adjustments for mechanics. That will only distract her from more important things."

Introspection may seem complicated - that's because it is, especially if you are willing (at the risk of alienating readers) to allow distance between the reader and the character. There are lots of moving parts. Lots of choices.

Effective use of a character's thoughts in fiction requires a thorough understanding of the mechanics of introspection. But the benefits of skillfully delivered introspection far outweigh the cost of avoiding its use or presenting it poorly.

Learn more about this author, Mike Klaassen.
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