Stream Of Consciousness Technique
“A literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur”.
Literary definitions
Have you ever read a story that felt like you were deep in the brain of the protagonist? Instead of being told the story in order, you feel like you are hearing another person’s thoughts. This is a literary technique called "stream of consciousness."
Stream of consciousness technique is a style of writing which conveys the ongoing thought process of the character being portrayed using sensory impressions, written in verbal language, partial thoughts etc.
Stream of consciousness strives to reproduce what goes on in one’s thoughts; it is a narrative style that is quite aggravating to an impatient reader as it poses the problem of trying to figure out what the person is thinking. Is this thought the past or the present?
Dominant technique
Stream of consciousness technique is one of the dominant techniques explored by the modern writers. Narrative technique is developed from subjectivism, this technique exploits the elements of confusion in our conscious minds.
Term applied for literary criticism for the first time in 1918
The term “stream of consciousness” traces back to The Principles of Psychology, published in 1890 by William James. It was first applied to literary criticism by May Sinclair in 1918, via analysis of novels by Dorothy Richardson. This technique existed long before it was named—the stream of consciousness writing can be found in the 19th century works by Edgar Allan Poe, Leo Tolstoy, and Ambrose Bierce, among many others. It became especially popular among writers of the Modernist era—roughly contemporaneous with Sinclair’s 1918 essay.
Synonym for interior monologue
Stream of consciousness is often used as a synonym for interior monologue. Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms suggests that "they can also be distinguished psychologically and literally.
Stream of consciousness vs internal monologue
Internal monologue is logical and often linear. Thoughts coherently move from one to the next.
Stream of consciousness writing is often non-linear, characterized by non-traditional grammar and syntax.
Virginia Woolf as a first women modern writer who used “STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS TECHNIQUE’’
In Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novels, the writer describes the character’s inner life by combining memories, sensations, emotional conditions and feelings. According to her, a writer must suggest mental impressions and external reality spontaneously and true reality can only be captured when both sides are well captured by the writer. The three main characteristics of Woolf’s particular style of stream of consciousness are,
Narrator mediation
A unified style
Switch off consciousness
Stream of consciousness writer's use:
Figurative language
Theoretical devices
Expressive symbols
Images to portray the flux and privacy of human consciousness.
Modern writers and their work with using stream of consciousness technique
1. James Joyce, Ulysses (1922)
2. Samuel Beckett, Molloy (1951)
3. Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925),
To the Lighthouse(1927)
4. William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930)
5. Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957)
6. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground (1864)
7.Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness(1899)
How to start writing in stream-of-consciousness style
Unstructured, unedited writing that reflects your observation about a certain person, event, or an item. Stream-of-consciousness is a good way to write poetry or journals and can end with a piece of writing that can be as graphic as verbal.
To write stream-of-consciousness, start by choosing a character or subject to write about. Next, let the words flow without worrying about capitalization, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure. You can write whatever comes to mind, whether it's short phrases, fragmented feelings, or even collections of adjectives, verbs, or nouns. Don't be afraid to veer off-topic, Then, look back over what you wrote to revise the content, drawing associations and gaining insight as you work through it.
Tips on practicing this writing style
Choose a character or topic
Forget conventional grammar
Don't worry about spellings
No need to worry about of grammar and punctuation
Revise
Illustrate inner thoughts and feelings
Read other examples of this writing style
Familiarize yourself with the form
Choose your tools
Find a spot to write
Write
Give your brain freedom
Make connections
Things You'll Need
Paper
Writing implement
Thesaurus (optional)
Meditate
Limit distractions
Don't self-edit
Let’s write!
Set a timer and just go for it.
You can start with how you’re feeling or if you’re thinking of a character, you started creating...what if they felt this way?
You’re at a party — what’s going on, who do you run into, who do you avoid?
Imagine your character is on a sailboat with 10 plus people. They suddenly recognize someone on the boat. Who is it?
Keep in mind, these just become regular writing prompts if you think too much about them. The goal here is to get into the flow of your natural thoughts.Don’t hesitate and just keep writing until that timer goes off!
Using stream of consciousness in fiction
Stream of consciousness is most common in fiction. Novels are longer winded mediums than anything else, this kind of writing can be used to not only reveal thoughts of a character but reveal the inner workings of their mind.
The first time this psychological term was used in a literary sense was by May Sinclaire in 1915, when she was reviewing Dorothy Richardson’s Pointed Roofs.
“On one side was the little gray river, on the other long wet grass was repelling and depressing. Not far ahead was the roadway which led, she supposed to the farm where they were to drink new milk. She would have to walk with someone when they came to the road, and talk. She wondered whether this early morning walk would come, now, every day. Her heart sank at the thought.”
Virginia Woolf uses stream of consciousness throughout the iconic Mrs. Dalloway:
“Her only gift was knowing people almost by in-stinct, '' she thought, walking on. If you put her in a room with someone, up went her back like a cat's; or she purred. Devonshire House, Bath House, the house with the china cockatoo, she had seen them all lit up once; and remembered Sylvia, Fred, Sally Seton-such hosts of people; and dancing all night; and the waggons plodding past to market; and driving home across the Park. She remembered once throwing a shilling into the Serpentine. But every one remembered; what she loved was this, here, now, in front of her; the fat lady in the cab. Did it matter then, she asked herself, walk-ing towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must in-evitably cease completely; all this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?”
Woolf takes us through this paragraph of past people and places, through means of nostalgic associations.
How to Master Stream of Consciousness?
Literary stream of consciousness is a device used to render a character’s mental process into text. Originally coined by William James in 1890 as a Principle of Psychology yet easily transferable to the literary domain, the mode often reads as incoherent and fragmented, It is because thoughts and emotions flow illogically in our minds.
Consciousness … does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. …It is nothing jointed; it flows. A ‘river’ or ‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described.” – William James
The following is an excerpt from Stephen Dedalus’ lengthy direct interior monologue in Ulysses. James Joyce shows us the way his character is thinking by using short, disjointed phrases.
Turning, he scanned the shore south, his feet sinking again slowly in new sockets. The cold domed room of the tower waits. Through the barbicans the shafts of light are moving ever, slowly ever as my feet are sinking, creeping duskward over the dial floor. Blue dusk, nightfall, deep blue night. In the darkness of the dome they wait, their pushed back chairs, my obelisk valise, around a board of abandoned platters. Who will clear it? He has the key. I will not sleep there when this night comes.” – James Joyce, Ulysses
Virginia Woolf, whose use of stream of consciousness is particularly refined and effective, which demonstrates indirect interior monologue in the classic Mrs. Dalloway. An omniscient third-person narrator delivers the tale but taps into the consciousness of multiple characters throughout the course of the narrative.
The opening paragraphs of Mrs Dalloway immediately establish its stream of consciousness style:
…And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning – fresh as if issued to children on a beach.What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had 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 she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open w benefits of stream of consciousness
indow, that something awful was about to happen…” – Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
Note that, through use of a ‘thought’ tag, it is first made clear that Clarissa Dalloway is the character whose consciousness we are soon to enter.
Is writing stream of consciousness hard?
The stream of consciousness technique uses unusual, often grammatically incorrect, sentence structure, full of incomplete thoughts and tangents to illustrate how a character thinks. Most of the time it can be frustrating for many readers because the storytelling doesn't flow in a logical manner.
Is stream of consciousness good?
This narrative technique can reveal important underlying thought processes. In literature, stream-of-consciousness is the interior monologue of a character's thoughts. As a literary technique, stream-of-consciousness makes us feel closer to the character and brings them to life.
Effect of stream of consciousness
Stream of consciousness writing allows the author to provide a more intimate portrayal of their subjects to the reader. It prevents them from being confined to physical descriptions or accounts of spoken dialogue.
What type of writing is stream of consciousness?
Stream of consciousness is a narrative style that tries to capture a character's thought process in a realistic way.We can say it as an interior monologue, but usually it's more than that.
Can stream of consciousness be in third person?
In short, it's the use of language to mimic the "streaming" nature of "conscious" thought "stream. Stream of consciousness can be written in the first person as well as the third person.
Benefits Of Stream Of Consciousness
Acting as a source of release
Helping you sort your thoughts and emotions
Stream of consciousness writing can help you to feel calm, centered and balanced.
It pulls readers deep into the narrator's mind.
It can be used to lend a breath poetic rhythm to your story.
It can create an interesting genuineness by mimicking real-life thought patterns.
Characteristics of stream of consciousness
Stream of consciousness is characterized by a flow of thoughts and emotions which may not always have a coherent structure. The plot line weaves in and out of time. It basically attempts to capture all the external and internal forces that influence the mind of a person.
This technique refers to the continual passage of thoughts, ideas and experiences in the conscious mind. In literature, the phrase refers to the flow of these thoughts and ideas with note to a particular character’s thinking processes. The stream of consciousness technique is generally utilized as an alternative to dialogue and description in forging a narrative in the form of the character’s thoughts.
Main Criticism
Freedom given to the writer to describe the raw thoughts and emotions of the characters could give way to lack of organization and anarchic writing.
How do you show a stream of consciousness?
Counterfeit that you are the protagonist, just think about how you are thinking and get those thoughts and jotdown.You have to use your own inner thoughts while doing writing practice.
5 main features of a stream of consciousness?
Free association
Looping repetitions
Sensory observations
Strange (or even nonexistent)
Punctuation and syntax
Purpose of stream of consciousness technique?
Stream of consciousness technique allows authors to provide a more intimate portrayal of their subjects. It prevents them from being confined to physical descriptions or accounts of spoken dialogue. Technique purpose is to allow these countless thoughts to pass through without any inhibitors; it's quite literally capturing the stream of your consciousness.
