 Drama: December 09, 2020 Issue [#10501] |
This week: Dramatic and Internal Monologues Edited by: Joy  
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“...every monologue sooner or later becomes a discussion.”
Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
A conversation is a dialogue , not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity , two intelligent talkers seldom meet.
Truman Capote
“Whether a character in your novel is full of choler, bile, phlegm, blood or plain old buffalo chips, the fire of life is [should be] in there, too, as long as that character lives.”
James Alexander Thom
“Stories are the collective wisdom of everyone who has ever lived....Your job is to let people know that everyone shares their feelings--and that these feelings bind us. Your job is a healing art, and like all healers, you have a responsibility. Let people know they are not alone.”
Brian McDonald
“What is called music today is all too often only a disguise for the monologue of power.”
Jacques Attali
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about reaching a character's inner world through dramatic and internal monologues.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Please, note that there are no rules in writing, but there are methods that work for most of us most of the time.
The ideas and suggestions in my articles and editorials have to do with those methods. You are always free to find your own way and alter the methods to your liking.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Have you ever wondered why some stories resonate more with us than others, even those not too focused on action? If you did and if you are a fan of the stage arts, you’ll remember actors talking and reasoning to themselves stepping forward or moving to the side of the stage, away from the others on stage. This is called dramatic monologue, and although its definition usually has to do with poetry, the term is closely related to fiction's internal monologue.
Then, Britannica defines the same concept as, “A dramatic monologue is any speech of some duration addressed by a character to a second person. In fictional literature, an interior monologue is a type of monologue that exhibits the thoughts, feelings, and associations passing through a character's mind.”
No matter the context or the type of fiction, a powerful story needs strong assets such as voice, originality, style, a compelling plot, and above all strong characters. Thus, what makes any story come alive has to do with its characters’ insights into their own psyches. Let’s see how Shakespeare does it.
Here’s a man explaining himself.
“Menenius: I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't; said to be something imperfect in favoring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning. What I think, I utter, and spend my malice in my breath.” From Coriolanus
Here's woman explaining herself.
Adriana: “I am possessed with an adulterate blot; My blood is mingled with the crime of lust. For if we two be one, and thou play false, I do digest the poison of thy flesh, being strumpeted by thy contagion.” From The Comedy of Errors.
As in real life, only the strong-willed characters (or those who develop through the storyline to become strong-willed) know how to get in touch with and reveal their own feelings, minds, motivations, and egos. We writers all make our characters look into themselves in one way or another, but what if we wanted to write something close to a dramatic monologue?
Here are a few steps we might consider employing.
 A strong point of view and a single character is a must.
In the following quote Jane Eyre describes how she feels after the truth comes out that Mr. Rochester cannot marry her because he is already married.
“Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent expectant woman—almost a bride—was a cold, solitary girl again; her life was pale; her prospects were desolate…I looked at my love; that feeling which was my master’s…it shivered in my heart, like a suffering child in a cold cradle; sickness and anguished had seized it; it could not seek Mr. Rochester’s arms—it could not derive warmth from his breast. Oh, never more could it turn to him; for faith was blighted—confidence destroyed!”
The monologue--or rather looking in--should start with a strong sentence.
“Our wounds are different. Your white men/Are, after all, not gods indeed, / Nor able to make Christs again /Do good with bleeding.”
From The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A good monologue needs to build up to some action, which is usually a decision.
“We can’t strike. Why not? Because it’s against the law to strike! The king has declared that everything is a crime. Writing is a crime. Two weeks ago, the police destroyed the Galaty, the worker’s newspaper. They smashed the press…” says Marius in Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Decide what your limitations are. Unlike the olden times when actors on stage went on and on, our readers and audiences cannot take droning for too long. If you are writing a play, remember that about 150 words equal one minute. If you are writing any other form of fiction, limit your character’s self-expression to a couple of paragraphs the most. Surely you can continue on the same thought later, but make sure some kind of an action divides the internal monologue, so you don’t lull the readers or the audience to sleep.
End the monologue with words that are meaningful and effective to leave the readers and the audience with something to think about. A good practice is to write several endings and pick the most appropriate one.
As an example, in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Marmeladov looks forward to the final judgment of Christ.
“And He will say, ‘Come to me! I have already forgiven thee once…Thy sins which are many are forgiven thee for thou hast loved much’ …. And the wise ones and those of understanding will say, ‘Oh Lord, why dost Thou receive these men?’ And He will say, ‘This is why I receive them, oh ye wise, this is why I receive them, oh ye of understanding, that not one of them believed himself to be worthy of this.'”
Whether we write a play and use dramatic monologue or we write a story or a novel and use internal monologue, may all our monologues make our characters shine!
Until next time! 
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This Issue's Tip: The dramatic monologue, in prose or poetry, shows a timelessness element in its essence. The facts and the social realm are its side shows. While writing the dramatic monologue, therefore, we need to pay serious attention to its timelessness.
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Done! Thank you for writing to this newsletter. As your story points to it in such a compelling way, I will be very careful not to cross any cat. 
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