Two years ago I took part in an online seminar with Heather Alexander, who was at the time an editor at Dial and is now a literary agent. Her talk was all about defining what makes up an authors 'voice' in fiction writing. Editors and agents often say they are looking for authors/ stories with a distinctive 'voice', yet as writers it can be hard to understand what they mean. Heather Alexander broke down what makes up an author's voice into several component parts. Out of respect for her and because I don't want to get into trouble, I can't cover what she said here. But I am going to discuss one of the parts she mentioned: 'interior monologue.'

Interior monologue as defined in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

(a) narrative technique that exhibits the thoughts passing through the minds of the protagonists. These ideas may be either loosely related impressions approaching free association or more rationally structured sequences of thought and emotion.

The way you use interior monologue in your fiction writing is extremely important to the success or lack of success of your book. In fact, Heather Alexander said that most fiction books landing in her in-box from agents are lacking in interior monologue and, in her opinion, one of the reasons the Hunger Games was so popular was because of Collins' skillful use of this device. I would go even further and say that mastering this technique of interior monologue is the number one key to writing a great novel. (Of course, you've got to understand plotting and pacing and characterisation, but these aren't enough if you haven't understood interior monologue.)

Interior monologue encompass several forms, including dramatised inner conflicts, self-analysis, imagined dialogue and rationalisation. In most books published today it is most often restricted to an organised presentation of that character's rational thoughts.

I wanted to use a concrete example of what I consider excellent interior monologue from the best-selling apocalyptic fiction 'The 5th Wave' by Rick Yancey. I've broken down the prose into sections to show you firstly how much interior monologue there is (A LOT!) and what KIND of interior monologue it is.

It is not just enough to include interior monologue in your prose. ALL INTERIOR MONOLOGUE IS NOT EQUAL. Just because you've got interior monologue, doesn't mean it's working to enhance your story.

These of the kinds of interior monologue you can use. (I think I've got all of them, but let me know if I've missed something out!)

EXPOSTION -The character gives us important background information, which is woven into the scene and their thought process.

FEELING - POV character expresses their feelings

DIRECT THOUGHT IN THE MOMENT - This is often presented in italics. If your narrative is told in the past tense, this interior monologue is still in present tense.

FILTERED THOUGHT - This includes the character's rationalisation, impressions and half-thoughts. If your narrative is written in the past tense, it can also include thoughts the character has had since the event they're describing happened.

So let's take a look at this small extract from The 5th Wave:

5TH WAVE:

Instead, I listened to the silence of the abandoned store, listened hard. Something was close. I took a tiny step away from the door, and the broken glass crunched ever so softly under my foot.

And then the Something made a noise, somewhere between a cough and a moan. It came from the back room, behind the coolers, where my water was.

That's the moment when I didn't need a little old voice to tell me what to do. It was obvious, a no-brainer. Run.

But I didn't run.

The first rule of surviving the 4th Wave is don't trust anyone. It doesn't matter what they look like. The Others are very smart about that-okay, they're smart about everything. It doesn't matter if they look the right way and say the right things and act exactly like you expect them to act. Didn't my father's death prove that? Even if the stranger is a little old lady sweeter than your great-aunt Tilly, hugging a helpless kitten, you can't know for certain-you can never know-that she isn't one of them, and that there isn't a loaded .45 behind that kitten.

It isn't unthinkable. And the more you think about it, the more thinkable it becomes. Little old lady had to go.

That's the hard part, the part that, if I thought about it too much, would make me crawl into my sleeping bag, zip myself up, and die of slow starvation. It you can't trust anyone, then you can trust no one. Better to take the chance that Aunty Tilly is one of them than play the odds that you've stumbled across a fellow survivor.

That's friggin' diabolical.

It tears us apart. It makes us that much easier to hunt down and eradicate. The 4th Wave forces us into solitude, where there's no strength in numbers, where we slowly go crazy from the isolation and fear and terrible anticipation of the inevitable. Exposition and filtered thought entangled.

So I didn't run. I couldn't Whether it was one of them or an Aunty Tilly, I had to defend my turf. The only way to stay alive is to stay alone. That's rule number two.

So how much interior monologue was in this extract?

Now, I just want to point out that sometimes, it's pretty difficult to distinguish between these types of interior monologue. The writing can blend types together so that the author is doing two things at the same time. But let's give it a go...

5TH WAVE:

(DESCRIPTION) Instead, I listened to the silence of the abandoned store, listened hard. Something was close. I took a tiny step away from the door, and the broken glass crunched ever so softly under my foot.

And then the Something made a noise, somewhere between a cough and a moan. It came from the back room, behind the coolers, where my water was.(END OF DESCRIPTION)

(START OF FILTERED THOUGHT) That's the moment when I didn't need a little old voice to tell me what to do. It was obvious, a no-brainer. Run. (END OF FILTERED THOUGHT)

But I didn't run. (DESCRIPTION)

(EXPOSITION) The first rule of surviving the 4th Wave is don't trust anyone. It doesn't matter what they look like. The Others are very smart about that-okay, they're smart about everything. It doesn't matter if they look the right way and say the right things and act exactly like you expect them to act. (END OF EXPOSITION) (START FILTERED THOUGHT)Didn't my father's death prove that? Even if the stranger is a little old lady sweeter than your great-aunt Tilly, hugging a helpless kitten, you can't know for certain-you can never know-that she isn't one of them, and that there isn't a loaded .45 behind that kitten. Exposition inferred through filtered thought.

It isn't unthinkable. And the more you think about it, the more thinkable it becomes. Little old lady had to go.

That's the hard part, the part that, if I thought about it too much, would make me crawl into my sleeping bag, zip myself up, and die of slow starvation. It you can't trust anyone, then you can trust no one. Better to take the chance that Aunty Tilly is one of them than play the odds that you've stumbled across a fellow survivor.

That's friggin' diabolical.

It tears us apart. It makes us that much easier to hunt down and eradicate. The 4th Wave forces us into solitude, where there's no strength in numbers, where we slowly go crazy from the isolation and fear and terrible anticipation of the inevitable. Exposition and filtered thought intertwined. (END OF FILTERED THOUGHT)

(DESCRIPTION) So I didn't run. (END OF DESCRIPTION) (START OF FILTERED THOUGHT)I couldn't. Whether it was one of them or an Aunty Tilly, I had to defend my turf. The only way to stay alive is to stay alone. That's rule number two. (END FILTERED THOUGHT.)

In this whole extract there are a total of six lines of description. All the rest is interior monologue! 

What's so interesting about this is the filtered thoughts of the character convey her anxiety and fear far more than if she'd said "I was terrified." It shows the logic behind her fear, the association of her thoughts, and by doing so, the reader feels we understand her. The author has put us inside her head in a very controlled way. We know her internal conflicts and her state of mind. Even though this long interior monologue is set in the middle of an 'action' scene we don't feel it's slow or laboured because it captures the essence of her well-justified paranoia. It captures her 'voice' and character.

I believe interior monologue is actually one of the hardest things to do well in fiction writing. It is difficult to get the right balance. Over using it can become tedious for the reader. Under use it, and the reader won't connect to the POV character. Use it badly by telling us what the character is literally feeling, or boring us with mundane thought associations and the reader will close the book.

I hope the way I've broken this down is helpful and not too complicated! Let me know if you have any comments or questions. If you want to post a very short extract from your WIP where you think you've done a good job of using interior monologue, or you know you haven't got it right, but aren't sure why, I would love to read it and I will try to point you in the right direction if it's something you're struggling with.

I'm going to leave you with a last snippet of prose from 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth. This is where Tris has to decide which faction she will join. Can you see when the author uses interior monologue?

I look at Caleb, who now stands behind the Erudite. He stares back at me and nods a little, like he knows what I'm thinking, and agrees. My footsteps falter. If Caleb wasn't fit for Abnegation, how can I be? But what choice do I have, now that he left us and I'm the only one who remains? He left me no other option.

I set my jaw. I will be the child that stays; I have to do this for my parents. I have to.

Marcus offers me my knife. I look into his eyes-they are dark blue, a strange color-and take it. He nods, and I turn toward the bowls.