Question by Jen[Chocolate Burn]: How do you define stream of consciousness writing?
In your own words what makes it *stream of consciousness*
I wrote a small piece but I am not really sure if it’s that.
Best answer:
Answer by Nicole
I’d define it as writing down exactly what’s going on in your head. Any thoughts you’re thinking, any ideas you have. You know that “voice” you hear your own thoughts in in your head? It’s like writing down whatever that says. Hope that helps!
Give your answer to this question below!
It is normal human consciousness in which words are several times repeated before you go to another word. Like I, I am thinking, thinking of you, you.
A stream of conscious writing is just writing every single thought (which is impossible to get every single thought out because there are so many going on at once that we are unaware of) on to a piece of paper to see and prove how easily our mind shifts topics. For example, you may write ur first thought of a pickle because your mom just said something about a pickle. the next thought that may come to mind may be th dress ur mother wore yesterday. following, a though about the color. that may lead to something u saw of the same color in a store. u may then be thinking to yourself how someone came up with the name for their store. it goes on and on because your mind literally works relentlessly. u just went from the topic to a pickle to how JC Penney got its name. its pretty interesting and fun to look over after a while. i recommend trying it and there’s no wrong way of doing it as long as u wright the first things that come to mind. have fun with it and don’t worry if its wrong…because its not.
I would define it as writing down exactly what the human mind thinks. A thought shifts to another thought which becomes another thought, and all of a sudden you’re thinking about Christmas trees when you were originally thinking of pencils. I think it’d be really hard to do, though, because honestly, I don’t really know *why* I think this stuff. Just say I think, “Pencils,” and then I think, “Homework” — how did my mind get to that point, why did I make that particular connection? I think it would be really difficult, but I’m sure you could do it 🙂
I was actually talking about this in my English class, and I think that William Faulkner did it in The Sound and the Fury — he started off the book with a homeless guy’s thinking, so it’s totally crazy, but there are snippets that show the theme of the book. Also James Joyce apparently it as well.
😀
I would define it as the most pure form of writing. You are not allowing yourself to over-think or analyze anything you are putting down. You are not allowing yourself to filter or dissemble anything. What comes out is crystal-clear truth and open emotion, even if the end product is fiction.
It is stream-of-consciousness if it is spontaneous and honest.
Stream-of-consciousness is a very stylistic form of free indirect discourse. It is not spontaneous, or unintentional, or anything of the sort. In fact, if anything, it’s just the opposite. It’s highly stylized, but also purposeful and calculating. It sees the world wholly through the character’s mind instead of through their senses, save for how the mind and the senses interact.
It relates to a lot of things – free association, synesthesia, free indirect discourse, without actually being any of them.
There’s only a handful of writers that can actually do stream-of-consciousness writing with any success – Joyce and Faulkner come to mind immediately. In short, there’s nothing wrong with trying it, but there’s also nothing wrong with not having done that, but having done, say, free association instead.