Talking to Yourself and the Writing Process (FightWrite™)

For the first time in many years, the majority of my writing is fiction. I am working on a book. There, I’ve said it. Yes, I am working on a novel. (Insert uncomfortable smile here.) And what I’m finding is that my creative process for writing fiction is very different than my nonfiction. Rather than beat around the bush, I will just get right to it. Y’all, I am talking to myself a lot. Like, all the time. In fact, I’ve been talking to myself so much, I did a little research into the phenomena, which is how I refer to it rather than that weird thing I do constantly. In this post with FightWrite™ on the WD Blog, we are going to take a closer look at talking out loud to ourselves and how it might impact the creative process, especially writing.

(How to Start Your Fight Scene (FightWrite™))

First, let me clarify what I mean by talking to myself about my book. I do not mean writing voice to text. Which you might do, and, hey, good on you. I am not so skilled. What I mean is that I speak as a character would, out loud. Yes, really. And from what the research is showing, it is a helpful practice. But, let me back out a little so we can get a panoramic view before we zoom in. First, we’re going to look at how talking to ourselves out loud is different than inner monologue. Then, we’ll look at how it can be helpful. Then we’ll consider how talking out loud to ourselves can actually make our stories better.  

The processes of talking out loud and inner monologue are quite different. Inner monologue is actually less monologue than it is a sort of mental short hand. The sentences we speak internally tend to be incomplete thoughts. Even if we are reciting something to ourselves in our heads, we often skip over words and, rather than actually reciting word-for-word, we recite in “note form.” We push words together, we hop over a few, we shorten others. It is an efficient thought process our brains naturally do. To think differently requires deliberate effort. Because energy is life, our brains conserve it wherever they can, and one of those ways is to think in a truncated fashion.

When we speak inner monologue out loud, we abandon that mental shorthand. Speaking requires the brain to slow down because our words have to make sense to someone else, even if that someone else is just our own ears. The thought comes out slower and in more complete phrases. Words we previously jumped over internally must be verbalized, and sometimes what we jump mentally is the real crux of the thought. Verbalizing those decisive words or phrases can help us better understand what it is we are truly thinking. They can also help us work out problems or Rubber Duck Debug them.

I had never heard of this concept, but now that I have, I’m getting me a rubber duck for my desk directly. Apparently, computer programmers are known to keep a rubber duck on their desk—the bathtub sort. Whenever they run into a complicated coding issue, they explain the problem to the rubber duck as simply as they can. As they explain the problem to the duck, they talk their own self through the issue which allows them to break it down more completely. The more they break it down, the better able they are to solve the coding issue. Thus, the term, “rubber duck debugging.” 

Not only can talking through an issue help you solve it, but it can also help you do it quicker and with greater accuracy. People who narrate tasks out loud complete those tasks 25 percent faster and with fewer errors than those who do the same job silently. The reason is that those who speak the task out loud create a feedback loop that maintains focus and also catches mistakes. So, if you are a person who repeats the word keys while you look for your keys, that repetition is actually helping you find them.  

When it comes to the writing process, speaking out loud has some very specific benefits. When I was a high school teacher, I always encouraged students to read what they had written out loud to themselves slowly. I still encourage that to my fight writing students and do it myself. When you read silently to yourself, you read what you intended to say. When you read out loud, you read what you actually wrote. Those two things ain’t always the same, let me tell ya.

Reading your work out loud to yourself puts you in the seat of a reader rather than a writer.

You physically hear how the words flow, where breaks might be needed and the fact that you have repeated a word 100 times without realizing. We all do it, inconceivable though that may be. This is where I am compelled to quote Inigo Mantoya from The Princess Bride. “What is this word you keep saying? I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

Talking to ourselves in our writing process allows us to get the story/scene out without the constraints of written language. We don’t have to worry about grammar, punctuation, spelling, breaking up paragraphs, etc. The words are simply allowed to exist which can lead us to develop our own writing voice.

Now, if you read my posts often you will see that I often use discourse markers like “now,” “so,” and “well” at the beginning of my sentences. Well, I do that because that is how I talk. I write in my outside voice. For a while, I tried to change it. But, well, you see how that went. I am a Southerner. Words like “now,” “so,” and “well,” at the beginning of a sentence are verbal bridges that can soften whatever words might follow. And, let me tell you, we Southerners love dropping bombs with bows around them. Let me give you an actual example from dialogue spoken to me on the day of my mother’s burial.

My cousin was walking a bunch of us around the family graveyard, pointing out headstones and telling stories about each of the people buried beneath them. Ready? This is pretty close to what she said:

That? Now that is Papa Douglas. He and his brother, your Uncle Ollie, helped establish a church in Pensacola. That one right there is your cousin, Henry, and his wife is there beside him. Now, they got a divorce and she tried to murder him over a car. So, there’s that.

Writers, you are allowed to write in your outside voice. There are few things more freeing than just writing how you write. Besides, nobody else can write exactly like you do. They aren’t you. So, there’s that.

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Speaking our work out loud also helps us home in on our character’s voice. Every single one of our characters will not speak the way we speak. They shouldn’t. We are not writing ourselves. Our characters will all have different accents and speaking rhythms peculiar to them. Speaking as your character would might better enable you to develop their cadence, word choice, and overall voice. The more you imitate that style out loud, the better able you will be to portray it in word silently.

Also, because speaking, is so deeply intertwined with gesturing and physical movement as a whole, you might see what your character would do as they spoke. How? Well, if you are imitating them, you are likely moving your body as they would. If you aren’t including gestures and physical movement in your work, you are missing out on more than half of human communication. 

Lastly, when we speak our work out loud, we are, whether we realize it or not, creating an imagined listener. You might think you are reading just to yourself, but think about the tone you are using. Is that tone really for you? More likely it is for your imagined listener which, in truth, is your reading audience. If you have struggled to find your audience, think of the person you are talking to when you are speaking your work out loud. Yes, you might be reading one character talking to another character, but who is the imagined listener at your feet? What is your tone? Who is that tone for?

The writing process can be challenging. I will not say it is hard because that is not what we should tell ourselves when we sit down to write. That said, let’s not lie. It can be challenging, and that’s a good thing. Our brains need a challenge. Our creativity needs a little push-back. It is what I call the “opposing force.” I can punch a bag all day long. But, until I have another set of hands in front of me punching back, I won’t know how much I actually know.

It is the same with writing. How will you know if writing is what you really want to do? How will you know if you’ve done the story justice? How will you know your writing voice is really your voice? Without an opposing force to make you question any of those, how will you know the answer?

Now, it may seem like I went off course there for a second but I haven’t. Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I submit that speaking and reading your work out loud will allow you not only to navigate that opposing force but make the most of it. You are going to slow your thoughts down. You will abandon the mental note form. You can create without the constraints of the physical and technical process of writing. You’re going to know your character better, find your perfect audience, and, above all, you will know your outside writer voice.

Until the next round with FightWrite™ on the WD blog, talk yourself into creativity, and get blood on your pages.