Writing a conflicted soliloquy

[LaRascasse]

There is a part in my latest story where one of the main characters has a heartwrenching choice to make. I wanted to show the decision making through a soliloquy, but I am not sure how to pull it off.

The best idea I have is going into her dream where she meets two alter egos of herself. Each tries to convince her of one option. The voices get louder and more persuasive as it goes on.

Is there any other way to show a conflicted soliloquy?

 

[litfan10]

There is a part in my latest story where one of the main characters has a heartwrenching choice to make. I wanted to show the decision making through a soliloquy, but I am not sure how to pull it off.

The best idea I have is going into her dream where she meets two alter egos of herself. Each tries to convince her of one option. The voices get louder and more persuasive as it goes on.

Is there any other way to show a conflicted soliloquy?

I've had my conflicted character fantasize about either of the options or even both before moving on with what the fantasy showed as the lesser of evils.

Good luck however you decide to resolve this, a very good writing challenge to say the least.

 

[lovecraft68]

There is a part in my latest story where one of the main characters has a heartwrenching choice to make. I wanted to show the decision making through a soliloquy, but I am not sure how to pull it off.

The best idea I have is going into her dream where she meets two alter egos of herself. Each tries to convince her of one option. The voices get louder and more persuasive as it goes on.

Is there any other way to show a conflicted soliloquy?

Closest I have come to this is SWB 36 the beginning of the dark days arc. If you remember Megan was sitting on a bench totally disgusted with herself because she had started using again.

In her mind she starts off wishing she hadn't then progresses to glad she did and it leads to her sick mind thinking she is going to do everyone a favor by making them hate her so she can then, guilt free, go on a bender and kill herself.

You can go re-read it, it might help some. I got weird views on it, most just said she was sick, but I did get one very long e-mail from a former coke addict who had been clean for the past ten years who told me I nailed it.

 

[oggbashan]

To Be Or Not To Be - That is the question

I would have her sit down with a pad of paper and write two columns, one for Pro and the other for Con using a different page for each decision that she ought to make.

She could consider aloud (or in her head) what decisions she faced, what factors argue for deciding for or against, and what the consequences might be for each choice.

She, of course, can get the process wrong; ignore decisions she ought to take; include unnecessary decisions; write down irrelevant factors; and the consequences might be totally different from her assessment.

There is also the possibility of self-delusion, of excessive optimism or pessimism, or misreading another person's motives or actions.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There is a part in my latest story where one of the main characters has a heartwrenching choice to make. I wanted to show the decision making through a soliloquy, but I am not sure how to pull it off.

The best idea I have is going into her dream where she meets two alter egos of herself. Each tries to convince her of one option. The voices get louder and more persuasive as it goes on.

Is there any other way to show a conflicted soliloquy?

If you're writing a magical sort of story, dreams could work. If you're aiming for a realistic one... it'd seem a bit forced to me. RL dreams aren't usually quite that coherent. You might get a dream that's inspired by the decision she's facing, maybe even symbolic of it, but it's not likely to spell it out and you're still going to have to do a lot of explaining to the readers.

Alternatives:

- would she have a diary/journal?

- would she be the sort of person to go sit by Grandma's gravestone and "talk" to her as a way of sorting out what's in her own head. You don't have to believe in life after death to do this; I'm a hardened sceptic, but I've been known to run through conversations with my late mother. Not because anybody's listening at the other end, just because it feels good to talk but weird to talk to nobody.

 

[sr71plt]

You could do it with straightforward, batting-back-and-forth interior discourse, with the words themselves conveying the progress from indecision to decision. That's the way it mostly happens in rea life. I'm not really sure I see the "problem" here--or that you need any sort of fancy device to construct it on (although if it's the fancy device you want to employ, that's OK too).

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Few of us make a heart-wrenching decision in just one sitting or one soliloquy. The more affecting the decision is, the more we kick it around, sleeping with it, waking up with it, doing the dishes with it. And I think few of us make these kinds of decisions entirely rationally either. We fantasize about the outcomes pro and con, we imagine how it will feel, all that stuff.

In a more practical sense, in a piece of fiction you'd like to have your character doing something relevant while she's mulling over her decision. For instance, if she's trying to decide between two lovers, it might be good to have her out on a date with one of them, constantly thinking how it would be if she were with the other man. If she has to decide whether to put a pet to sleep, she could be going over photographs of happier days.

You could also use the device of a diary or a letter to which she commits her thoughts.

The point is, you don't want to suspend the story's action while she just plops herself down like Rodin's Thinker and cogitates. You want to show the process of her decision making though action.

Finally, you'll probably want to make her soliloquy internal: i.e. thoughts. Thoughts are conventionally indicated in fiction by putting them in italics. Like:

Who am I trying to kid? she thought. I've already screwed things up...

But beware of having them run on too long. Italicized text is irritating to read, and your readers might bail.