ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Despite what psychics want you to believe, it's impossible for people to read each other's minds. [A couple with a psychic statue]

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However, like so many things that are impossible in the real world, you can actually read the

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minds of fictional characters… [Boy reading a Harry Potter book]

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…and you don't even need a crystal ball.

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The easiest way to channel a character's thoughts is through an interior monologue!

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What's an interior monologue, you ask?

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It's a piece of writing that expresses the inner thoughts and feelings of a character. [Dino teaching interior monologue]

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Kind of like all those times you've read your sibling's diary.

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Which…don't do that. [Boy reading Kate's diary]

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That ain't right.

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These come up not when a character is talking to another character…

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…but when a character's just…thinking to themselves.

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Luckily as readers, we get access to all those juicy, private thoughts, straight from the [Girl reading a book in a library]

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character's mind.

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It might not be the most polite thing in the world, but hey, that's fiction for ya!

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An interior monologue is very different from a dramatic monologue. [Coop discussing dramatic monologue]

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Sure, a character is revealing their thoughts and feelings, but they're doing it to a different character.

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Dramatic monologues tend to be pretty long, almost like speeches.

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They're great for capturing a character's thoughts and feelings in fiction… [Man conveying his feelings on stage to another man]

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…but they're not exactly the best way to have a two-sided conversation.

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There are also other ways for characters to get their thoughts and feelings across, without

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boring their friends.

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One is the soliloquy, where a character addresses their thoughts and feelings not to another [Man and girl on stage and girl is whisked away]

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character, but to the audience.

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At least the audience paid to be there, so they don't mind hearing all that stuff.

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Well…most of them, anyway. [Man checking his watch]

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Another way for a character to speak their mind is through an apostrophe: not the punctuation

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mark…that might be hard…

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…but when a character addresses their thoughts and feelings to a person who isn't there… [Girl discussing her feelings to imaginary person]

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…or even to an inanimate object.

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At least an inanimate object will definitely stick around to hear all the character's thoughts

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and feelings, and won't do anything rude like check the time. [Girl talking to a pumpkin and pumpkin looks at a clock]

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…Probably.

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Wilson, pay attention.

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