Young Writers Society

An internal monologue is that voice over in your head when you're thinking. For some people, this is a constant process, they may even have multiple voice overs that argue with each other. For others they don't have any kind of voice, and they think in concepts, colours or shapes rather than words.

Let me know what you guys think. Literally. And figuratively. Have you ever considered it before? Can you imagine not having a voice over in your head? Or is it strange to imagine other people talking to themselves constantly?

This is a topic that came up in my family recently. My mom and I both have a constant voice that narrates everything we do and say and can't imagine life without it. My dad, on the other hand, does not have a voice in his head at all. (He also can't see things inside his head). When I asked him about it, he described it as the scene in the Lego movie where they're inside Emmett's head and it's completely empty.

Mine is a tad weirder because I'm bilingual (Arabic + English). As I'm fluent in both, I tend to switch to whatever surroundings I'm in. I have many Arab friends who I phone call, and my boyfriend has commented that I even sound a bit different after chatting with them, as my internal monologue, conversational language, and thoughts were all in Arabic.

I used to get through my early primary school awkwardness by narrating my life like it's a movie! xD Thankfully I've left that coping mechanism behind but I still have that voice in my head, albeit less like Lemony Snicket.

I also asked my boyfriend and his brother if they have them, and they both do. (I've read that a lot of cis men don't experience that at all.)

Okay! So you left me pondering over this because I really didn't take much notice of this before. My mother tongue is not English nor do I speak in english while I am with my family or friends. But every conversation that I have inside my mind is mostly in English. It's like I am always giving suggestions to myself in a tone that's not actually mine, though it's this same voice every time but what I think I sound like in my mind does not resemble what I actually hear when I speak.
When I am not having any serious thoughts going on, then it's mostly some music that keeps on playing in a loop.

I am a very introvert person and sometimes I really find it difficult to have conversation with people in real life and I kind of get ignored by many of my so called 'friends'. So many a times it's like I am having conversation with them that I really wanted to in person.

Also I am also having strong faith in gods(Hindus have like countless number of gods and goddesses )So it happens that I have this one sided talk with him telling him my problems, asking for solutions, thanking him for any good that happens.(I call him Bg don't ask why, just a childish thing
Hope I didn't confuse you.

I've never really thought about this before I saw this thread, but I've been thinking about it ever since. I'm not entirely sure what my internal monologue is like. I don't think it's always words, but I definitely have an internal voice sometimes. It usually pops up when I'm thinking about what I need to over the course of the next couple of days or hours - it's kind of like a mental planner. It's also how I come up with story/essay ideas; I have to force myself to sit down and write down plans because they're usually all set up in my head.

Lool when I was in 12, I had people in my head and I was convinced that they were people far away and that I was speaking to them using my telepathic powers xD.

So we talked about this a while ago in chat, but I used to think in images/feelings almost exclusively. Then, when I joined YWS in 2013, I was in chat during almost all of my free time. It was really hard for me to keep up with the super fast speed that everyone was typing at, but after sticking with it for months, I became really good at reading and writing at the speed that was required. At some point, I was annoyed at myself because my brain was being too loud and talking: something I had never noticed before. That was when I realized I had an internal monologue. I developed one BECAUSE of this website and how much time I spent in chat.
I still have it today.
YWS fundamentally rewired the way my brain worked. How weird is that???

What do you mean, "thinking"?

From what I can tell, I think in desires, wishes, and contrasts.

By that, I mean that when I wake up, I have a voice that represents how I perceive myself. It tells me something simple like "get up". But as soon as it says it, it loops it indefinitely and links it to the perception of my heartbeat, so I open my eyes and "hear" the thought reverberate through my chest as it echoes. That's when it's an imperious desire.

When it's a wish, like wanting to eat cinnamon pie, it'll go "I really hope I can get a cinnamon pie": it's a suggestion instead of an order. Then, my brain will overload my senses with smells, tastes, sounds, and memories related to cinnamon pie, but gently — it'll stay like a record in the back of my head and I can easily ignore it, unlike the imperious desire from above. It's also going to trigger inspiration for whatever it is I'm doing. So, if I suddenly really like yellow today, it's because I forgot that I really wanted to eat cinnamon pie and still want to. Yellow reminds me of it.

Then, when it's a contrast, it's something that fuels my imagination. For example, I love listening to or writing about nature documentaries while listening to 8-bit music. Because something about the contrast between how urban 8-bit sounds are, VS how un-urban nature is, inspires me, or creates a sense of wonder stuck in the limbo of that contrast. When that happens, I don't have any voices, just very fast images. It's annoying to deal with, but it does put me in a good mood the easiest.

The wish part is my favorite, though. I've gotten really good at manually using it to my advantage. Then, the desires are stressful, but great when I need to get serious.
Luckily, I often feel the need to get serious.

Oh boy...my head is extremely weird.

I have most of the time around two, to occasionally when things get really crazy, four voices that are in my head when I'm thinking. It's so integrated into me that if someone asks me if I can do something I almost always reply "We'll think about it." I always refer to myself as "we" because my head is never occupied by just one voice. All my thoughts are conversations with the occasional argument. Say if you ever read a review of mine I write things like "We get a good idea of this story. This conveys this image to us". To use the words "I" and "me" in this post I am actually having to consciously go back and change words because it is an unusual thing for me to use.

And the way I think and do stuff is kind of like the movie "Inside Out" except for real. Like if I want to remember something I have a mental library that I can browse and just pull out what I want. I have this weapons system that I use to blast thoughts that I don't like. I can lock away feelings I don't want. It's literally an actual movie that goes on inside my head. And the voices also comment on my actions. Like if I'm playing a game like table tennis my body does the actions without actually thinking about it but the voices in my head are commenting on it. One voice will tell me what I should do next, one person is telling me my move was wrong and it's like having two commentators in my head all the time. This is probably also why I can't sleep that easily. I spend like an hour or two just trying to put away the days experiences in the library and sort of discussing the day.

And when it comes to writing it's quite strange. I don't think and write on the spot. I can't do that. If I sit down and say I'll write I might only get like two words written in an entire day. What happens is ideas that I send to "processing" as we like to call it are sent out from there to the front of my mind in this like pre written document. I almost don't have to think of words, they just flow out like I'm literally copying from a script that someone else wrote for me in my brain which is a weird thing to imagine but that's what goes on in there.

So...if this is giving you a headache trying to imagine, we're sorry but that's just how it is in here. And I guess to answer the question yaa I do have an internal monologue but it's more like an actual movie that never ends. In fact write now one voice is telling me I should be writing a review instead of wasting time here, another is screaming at us to go eat while a third voice is helping me, the fourth voice, to actually type this up. Oh and I have four names for the four voices. Harry is just one of them.

Hkumar wrote:When I am not having any serious thoughts going on, then it's mostly some music that keeps on playing in a loop.

Same! though most times I end up humming the music.