What if you didn’t have it? What if you spoke everything you thought?

When Glenn and I did our ‘mini-break’ in Auckland we caught a bus with a man who didn’t have an inner monologue and it was fascinating to watch/listen to him. Now this man had obviously abused alcohol (and still was if the pauses and slurps were anything to go by) hence he’d lost the ability to keep it in. And literally everything he thought passed his lips!! From mumbling about the colour of a building that had changed to dissecting a female passenger who’d caught his eye, ‘rich Asian lady, should hit her up for change’ (which he did..) this man kept up a running commentary of everything he saw. More interesting was when he conversed with someone he recognized. Listening to the mix of conversation and then thoughts was incredible.

It made me realize that in some senses writers are very like this. Our inner monologue is frequently written down for the world to see.

More and more I find myself ‘editing’ thoughts and running over phrases while conversing with others i.e ‘the regular courier ducks in, tossing a parcel on the desk and flees before the lifts close. Must be busy today’. I’ve gone from simply thinking without really being conscious of it to listening to most thoughts. It makes conversing with the different voices in my mind even more entertaining, which is why when I saw this man the other week I thought how incredible it’d be to listen to an author’s inner monologue.

Which author would you want to listen to? I think I’d go for Michael Crichton (a little tricky now I know ;p) because I’ve always been so impressed with his writing. Philippa Gregory is another, her writing both intrigues and scares me. Ooo and maybe Diana Gabaldon.

Who would you like to listen in to, if you ever could?