Writing Tips &Tricks

The Thought Process

  This is a question that I often get asked. How does one write about another person's thought process.

  As a writer, I firmly believe that it almost can't be done incorrectly. However, the worst thing you could do is under-explain.

  If you are writing a character, and your thoughts: My best advice is: as you are writing, you are thinking about what you want that character to do. Explain your reasoning in that character's point of view.

  Why do you want that character to go to the park? You want to change the setting? Make them want a change in setting.

  Why do they want to be friends with that person? Do they think that other character is interesting? Why do they think that person is interesting? Why do you think that that character is interesting.

  If you make sure that every character in your story, relevant or irrelevant, has a fleshed out backgound and a full life even behind the scenes, it shouldn't be too hard to explain why your character wants to interact with them. Everyone in your story is important.

  You have to explain every step. Trust me, it is hard to overstate a thought process. You can always cut out unnecessary stuff later. Write it all out.

  The problem comes when your characters have mental illnesses, disabilities, or a drastically different worldview.

  My best advice when dealing with one of these conditions is research. Tons and tons of research. You can't over-study these things. Generalizations in mental illnesses can be offensive or damaging and you don't want to offend your readers, trust me.

  I am ADHD. I cannot tell you how many times I see ADHD misrepresented in media outlets. We don't necessarily get distracted by shiny things in the middle of conversation, but I do tend to jump from topic to topic without any notable rhyme or reason from an outside perspective.

  More often than not, my thoughts tend to jump around sporadically and I find myself speaking in that manner as well. Sometimes I forget that most people don't think like that. I am also either completely tuned into a conversation or just saying 'yeah' to sound like I am. There really isn't that much of an in between.

  I also have anxiety and I can tell you that a cookie cutter panic attack will not move your readers. They have seen that all before. Pick something new. Honestly, the best portrayal of anxiety in books that I have seen to date, was in John Green's Turtles All The Way Down. I love that story. It is probably my favorite book.

  I don't have depression but there are a lot of people out there who do. I have read a lot of articles on the subject so I know they are out there.

  Please take the time to do research. Especially if you are planning on writing from the perspective from the opposite gender. Please do your research.

  Please avoid stereotyping. It is effective as a baseline for research and that is about it. Those stereotypes will give you hints about controversies, societal misrepresentations, urban legends, misconceptions, etc.

  Back to the topic of thought process (I went on an ADHD tangent). For those of you who are just starting out, pick a character and create a scene. Write from that character's point of view. Then have it peer reviewed by someone who won't sugar coat it. If they tell you to fix it, fix it. They should be telling you to fix it because this is a learning process and nothing will be great the first go.

  Keep doing this, over and over again until you find a style that you like. Writing prompts are perfect for this sort of thing, trust me. I love writing prompts so much. Choose a prompt, create your character, write from their pov, then have it critiqued. Repeat forever. There is Always room for improvement.

  If you can't, or won't, have it peer reviewed, wait a few weeks after you finished the scene then come back to it. See if you can understand why your character did what they did, that's great. Write another one and repeat the process. If you can't tell, you need to fix it.

  If you have any more requests, questions, etc. Feel free to leave a comment or PM me.