5 Techniques for Writing Crazy Characters' Inner Monologue
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| Crazy by KT Lindsay via Flickr cc |
In my novel A White Room, my heroine goes insane and her primary symptom is
that she believes the house and furniture are coming to life and plotting
against her, but as you can see in the below excerpt that’s not the only thing
that makes her seem off. I used five techniques to write her inner thoughts in
a way that was crazy too.
Make sure to scroll to the bottom to read an excerpt from A White Room.
1.
Distraction
In the above excerpt, I have my
character Emeline struggling to pay attention, which makes her comprehension of
the other characters feel scattered and confusing. This creates a sense of
insanity. She can’t take in the world around her and normal human interaction
becomes confusing and threatening to both her and the reader. Having
distractions in the writing literally creates the effect of jerking the reader
back and forth, which creates a chaotic mood overall.
2.
Synesthesia
The definition of synesthesia is
experiencing a sense such as smell but from a stimulus that isn’t for that
sense. So say if someone smelled a rose after touching a coffee cup. As a literary
device, synesthesia is used a lot in poetry to create interesting descriptions
by combining sensory words that complement each other like loud perfume. Perfume
cannot be loud, but the mixed description brings a twist to it that grabs a
reader’s attention. This can be done through metaphor or simile – saying something
is or is like.
Combing complementary sensory
descriptors creates a neat effect, but when you combine senses that don’t
naturally work together, it comes out kind of weird, kind of crazy.
Sounds seeped through the walls like black blood.
He must not have heard my eyes.
3.
Random Bizarre
Tangents
I had recently added the Ageratum alyssum. It was just a small white flower, but the name reminded me of the word asylum. I very much enjoyed the notion of a mad flower. At that moment, I wished I could crawl into the window-box jungle and build a little home there surrounded by insane flowers. – A White Room.
Be careful with random tangents though. Usually,
going off on a tangent is a big writing no-no, but if used intentionally, it
can suggest your character is losing it. Just focus on making bizarre and short
tangents that are your character’s and not yours. What I mean by that is the
tangent is your character’s thoughts and not your own narration or a sidebar to
fill in plot holes. Those are the no-nos.
4.
Transference of
Thoughts into Unintentional Behaviors
It’s not me, I told myself. It’s not me! I screamed it in my head. It’s not me! “It’s not me!”“What?”Oh my. I’d said that out loud.
– A White Room.
On multiple occasions I have Emeline
thinking something and then accidently do or say whatever it was she was
thinking without having deciding to do it. This creates a sense of being out of
control and being taken over by the mind.
5.
Repeating
Repeating is something Fight Club and Choke author Chuck Palahniuk does brilliantly.
“I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.”
“I am Jack’s wasted life.” “I am Jack’s smirking revenge.” – Quotes from Fight Club’s schizophrenic main
character Tyler Durden. The character repeats the “I am Jack’s …” throughout as
a way to describe his own emotions.
Repeating can be done with a phrase or
saying or it can be used in a string of thought, having your character repeat a
word or multiple words in a sentence or paragraph, which will make it seem like
he or she is going in circles.
Repeating kind of goes hand in hand with
obsession. Obsession works really well to suggest insanity when it’s over
something mundane or strange, but it can also suggest crazy when it’s somewhat
normal too. In my novel, Emeline is obsessed with the furniture, but Tyler in Fight Club is obsessed with his friend,
which is not too abnormal until it turns out to be himself.
Bonus: Repeating
can also be a behavior, a tick, like scratching one’s face or cracking a
certain knuckle over and over.
Insanity
is more than just having two personalities or seeing the furniture move. It can
also be shown through a character’s thoughts and emotions and behaviors and
even more importantly the way that the author writes them. The writing style
and syntax itself can be a bit crazy, nonlinear, and chaotic.
These
five techniques can be very useful to create insane inner thoughts, but they
aren’t the only devices. The cool thing about writing crazy people is that you
can get creative and come up with your own insane tools. Now go forth and
spread the madness!
An Excerpt from A White Room
Dr. Walter Bradbridge leaned
over me. I stared into his powder blue
eyes and tried to speak volumes to him without
saying a word.
“It was good of you to keep
her in bed, John.”
He must not have heard my
eyes.
John stood a few feet behind
him, spying over his shoulder.
If he said I was mad, I
didn’t know what I would do. Then
again, how could he not reach such a conclusion
when I knew John
had misconstrued the facts? It was up to me to
sway him, but I was
so distracted listening to them through the
walls. The little girl was
giggling and humming to the left, and I could
sense that wicked
being pacing behind the wall opposite the bed.
“Is she ill?” John paced
behind Walter.
“I’m not ill,” I said.
“She doesn’t appear to be
sick, but I’m afraid—well.” He
straightened and spoke to John in whispers.
John’s blank expression grew
concerned as he brought his hand
under his chin.
He was telling him.
“What would bring this on?”
John asked.
“She is still in mourning,
which can take a toll, but there are a
number of—”
“What?” I yelled, surprising
myself with my outburst.
Both Walter and John jumped
and looked at me.
Walter touched my hand. “It’s
nothing to fret yourself over.”
He continued talking to John
as if I couldn’t hear. I wished they
would speak up.
John folded his arms. “Can I
leave her in this condition?”
“You shouldn’t have to
cancel. I know this is an important trip.”
He situated his instruments in a black leather
satchel.
John sighed. “That’s a
relief.”
“I want to go,” I said.
“Emeline, I don’t think that
would be wise,” Walter said.
“What condition?”
He shook his head. “Don’t you
worry yourself about that.” He
turned his back to me. “It might actually be
best for her to be
alone. The less stimulation the better.”
John nodded, holding his chin
with one hand and an elbow with
the other.
“You’ll need someone to check
on her, though.”
Sounds seeped through the
walls like black blood—how could
they not hear it? They were so loud they drowned
out their words.
I watched their mouths move, but their voices no
longer resonated
in my ears.
Walter set his bag on the
table next to the bed, and abruptly my
senses returned. He spoke to me in a tone meant
for a child. “I
believe we are all finished here.”
My lips shook as I waited to
be condemned with the diagnosis,
but he said nothing more. He took hold of his
bag and strode to
the door. John followed. Would he not tell me?
Was he to judge me
to John and deny me my own sentencing? They
left, and the door
clacked shut.
—Quoted
from A White Room with the permission
of the author.
At the close of the Victorian Era,
society still expected middle-class women to be “the angels of the house,” even
as a select few strived to become something more. In this time of change,
Emeline Evans dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when her father dies
unexpectedly, Emeline sacrifices her ambitions and rescues her family from
destitution by marrying John Dorr, a reserved lawyer who can provide for
her family.
John moves Emeline to the remote
Missouri town of Labellum and into an unusual house where her sorrow and
uneasiness edge toward madness. Furniture twists and turns before her eyes,
people stare out at her from empty rooms, and the house itself conspires
against her. The doctor diagnoses hysteria, but the treatment merely reinforces
the house’s grip on her mind.
Emeline only finds solace after pursuing
an opportunity to serve the poor as an unlicensed nurse. Yet
in order to bring comfort to the needy she must secretly defy her
husband, whose employer viciously hunts down and prosecutes unlicensed
practitioners. Although women are no longer burned at the stake in 1900,
disobedience is a symptom of psychological defect, and hysterical women must be
controlled.
A novel of madness and secrets, A White Room presents a fantastical
glimpse into the forgotten cult of domesticity, where one’s own home could
become a prison and a woman has to be willing to risk everything to be free.
