Definition:
To depict the thoughts of the narrator in a free-flowing, haphazard and natural manner.
Why are we learning this?
-It’s versatile: poetry, short stories, entire narrative, play
-Take a break from learning ‘skills’ and rather embrace what is naturally there
-It’s always fun to learn new things! Knowledge is power
What does Stream of Consciousness Writing look like?
-Thoughts flow into one another, may be disconnected
-Little punctuation so sentences can run into each other
-May not make sense
-Time travelling
-Can surround a central idea or theme which the flow of the writing returns to
Examples:
“What a lark! What a plunge! For so it always seemed to me when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which I can hear now, I burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as I then was) solemn, feeling as I did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen …” Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway
“I am alone I want to be the two of us I want the join I come out of blue water after the bottoms of my feet swim away from me I come up I need to find a place to be the air is heavy I am not dead I am not there is a house there is what she whispered to me I am where she told me I am not dead I sit the sun closes my eyes when I open them I see the face I lost Sethe’s is the face that left me Sethe sees me see her and I see the smile her smiling face is the place for me it is the face I lost she is my face smiling at me”-Toni Morrison Beloved
Movie examples:
How this technique can help in your writing:
-Transported into the minds of your characters and we can access: feelings, time, ideas
-Useful exercise while journaling
-Help with mental health and documenting your life
-Add a little sparkle to your story/poem
-FREEDOM
Tips:
-Find an emotion
If this is too difficult, find an object = starting point
– 5 SENSES
-This can be your central theme if you want structure (optional)
-Once your idea is finished, start the next idea with the ending sentiment of the previous sentence/idea
-Don’t stop writing, draw if you have to
-Stop when you feel you can write no more
-The end should look different from the beginning
Prompts:
–This morning I ate..
-I’m feeling kinda…
-What if I’m the reflection in the mirror?
-I remember when I was a child I used to…
-If I could go anywhere in the world I would go…
-My pet dragon’s name would be…
-My top items in my bag for the apocalypse would be a banana and…
Helpful links:
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