Writers who excel at the Stream of Consciousness style

[sheablue]

Who are your favorites? Joyce? Virginia Wolf? I can't think of many others I've read that I feel do it well. It can be done really terribly, of course.

It's a style I'm fascinated by, because it is so hard to do. I just finished posting to my blog, and this latest entry is a semi-attempt at a stream of consciousness style, but I don't think I quite got there. It was fun to write, but I can't imagine writing an entire novel that way.

I would like to experiment with it more. Maybe I'll try a series of short stories. I think I have maybe a slight knack for it, or at least, my interest in it makes me want to really try. What I lack in talent I will make up for in passion!

Are there any Lit authors you have read who write this way, and do it well?

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Its the kissin cousin of schizophrenic word salad. Pop a handful of lsd and that oughta do the trick.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

•"How nice it'd be to come home to her
and sit by the fireplace and she in the kitchen
aproned young and lovely wanting my baby
and so happy about me she burns the roast beef
and comes crying to me and I get up from my big papa chair
saying Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple deaf!
God what a husband I'd make!" WORD SALAD.

[sheablue]

Now, come on, JBJ, I know you know that I know that you know better than that. I think done properly, stream of consciousness still has sentence structure, and tells a story. It's just a looser, freer structure. It doesn't have to be a bunch of nonsense, does it?

Or maybe I'm not thinking of stream of consciousness? Like in my blog post, I'm telling the story of a sexual encounter, but I'm trying to tell it like it is happening, in the moment, and from an emotional point of view, not with a proper story structure. There are run on sentences and frags, but on purpose to add to the style and to create a mood.

Now, I am not asking you to read my blog and comment here, but if you're interested, feel free to comment there. Or not. Whatevs.

But, JBJ, do you understand what I'm trying to say? I know you have read and researched a lot of past authors and analyzed their styles, including Joyce, right? So I'm glad that you popped in. But I know you know more of this style than you are letting on. What do you really think? Is my thinking wrong? Am I really not thinking about true stream of consciousness?

[sr71plt]

I bypass stream of consciousness except as done in small drabs for a reason. I've just reviewed a story of mine going in an anthology where I see I used it when the protagonist was under the influence of drugs. But only for a paragraph. I don't shy away from using sentence fragments, though.

[RedMonkeyButt]

Originally Posted by sheablue

Who are your favorites? Joyce? Virginia Wolf? I can't think of many others I've read that I feel do it well. It can be done really terribly, of course.

It's a style I'm fascinated by, because it is so hard to do. I just finished posting to my blog, and this latest entry is a semi-attempt at a stream of consciousness style, but I don't think I quite got there. It was fun to write, but I can't imagine writing an entire novel that way.

I would like to experiment with it more. Maybe I'll try a series of short stories. I think I have maybe a slight knack for it, or at least, my interest in it makes me want to really try. What I lack in talent I will make up for in passion!

Are there any Lit authors you have read who write this way, and do it well?

I don't read a lot of stream of consciousness simply because it is so often done exceptionally poorly.

As for reading it on here, the only story I've come across that I liked was this one by cailano. It's in horror, and the stream of consciousness is from the POV of a very disturbed girl (young woman, whatever). I think this is about the only time I can handle reading an entire story in SoC because if the character is disturbed enough then the author can push the limits of the believable a little farther. Especially since even in modern times psychology is not a concrete science. There is plenty of room to play with the illnesses and symptoms.