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Rated: E · Column · Opinion · #2349583

A diary entry in which I explore my way into a stream of consciousness style.

The following is a diary entry, I hope self-explanatory. I'm looking at stream of consciousness.
{10/23/25} Thoughts trampling thoughts.
On 10/14/17 I wrote, “Didn’t make that second call, now not looking likely.” What a curious way to say it, as though I'm predicting the weather. The mind/body predicting the behavior of the body/mind.
I read that in the “leather diary”—I opened this diary to record the above surprise. The second thought came when I remembered that I had written something yesterday (on paper) about sensory details leading to feelings in the viewpoint character, but my additions to Chapter 15 yesterday don't express any feelings. Instead, I see more “predictions of the weather” or just additional details which don't even seem “sensory.” Here are some tries at sensory details which include or express feelings:
1. His eyes are blue, making my heart race.
2. His eyes are blue, and I squirm in response.
3. His eyes are blue, and I feel an unwanted lust for him.
I suppose all of these are “sensory” but only the third expresses a clear feeling.
4. I notice that his eyes are blue, making me squirm with an unwanted lust for him.
This puts me and the reader further into GJ's head, perhaps as far as possible if I want to express a sensory detail that evokes a feeling. I think that is what I'm trying to do. “Uncomfortable lust” or “abhorrent lust” might be “even more sensory.”
5. I notice that his eyes are blue, making me squirm with an abhorrent lust for him.
Well this is certainly stronger and more informative than the original, “His eyes are blue.” Is this what I want? I don't know. It would be difficult to rewrite the entire Chapter 15 this way, but a worthy exercise.
6. His eyes are blue, and I suddenly realize that I want him. Disgusting!
Stronger yet. but I worry that if I try to write this way, I'm going to be saying “realize” (and synonyms like “discover”) rather a lot.
7. His eyes are blue. I want him. Disgusting!
This is closer to stream of consciousness. Is this how Virginia Woolf writes? Is it clearer? More natural? It is certainly not the style of Jane Eyre, which I previously have said was my goal.
Opening To the Lighthouse I find Woolf hopping from mind to mind like a flea, with “she said, she felt, she thought…” I like my number 7 better. So the question pops up, whose stream of consciousness? It seems immodest for a writer to go digging into the mind of every character, or more than one even. Yet this is what Tolstoy does in War and Peace, I believe. Dostoevsky’s narrator in Notes from Underground addresses “gentlemen.” It is written much like a letter, in the first person. This is more to my taste than Woolf’s style, for this novel.
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