Voices in my head - Interior Monologue

As a writer I'm told we have the advantage over, say a movie, in that you can put the reader inside your characters head. You are able to take the reader from action to thought and back to action again, giving the reader vital information of unexpressed thoughts as to how, or why the person is reacting that way. Interior monologue allows:

1. disclosure of information that doesn't fitdialogue
2. gives the reader a feel for who the characters are
3. it is an intimate and powerful way to establish a characters voice and personality

So with this handy tool at my disposal what are the pitfalls?

• Be cautious of IM interrupting flow of story/dialogue - constant interruptions are irritating
• Use dialogue to good effect don't use IM to reinforce a feeling that dialogue has/can make clear. eg (IM)She felt herself getting angry at his intrusion and the sooner he left the better. Now in dialogue... She slammed the book down on the desk. "Get to the point and go."
• Don't put IM in quotes. IM are thoughts, not spoken and should be unobtrusive and should have no speaker attributions. eg: (in quotes) "I'm about done here," he said, then mumbled under his breath, "or will be, if I'm not interrupted." Now with speaker attributions. Am I done here? I would be if you didn't interrupt me, he thought. Now without speaker attrbutions - Am I done here? Only if you stop interrupting me.
• As you write a scene in one POV the reader knows whose head they are in so speaker attribution in IM is unnecessary.
• A long passage of IM can have its own paragraph. If written well the reader will just slide into the persons head unaware they are doing it as they are already with that character, the seams blur.
• some writers use italics to set out IM that would be hard to work in otherwise.

As a self-editing tool, Rennie Brown and Dave King suggest the following for bringing IM in your manuscript to your attention.

• How much do you have? - go through and highlight the passages that occur in a person's head.
• Look at it - Is it dialogue descriptions in disguise? Are you using IM to show things that should be told? Should some of your longer passages be turned into scenes?
• Do you use speaker attributions that could be dropped and the speaker still remain clear?
• Can you convert IM from first to third person? Give it its own paragraph? Convert it to a question? Or italicing it?
• How close are your narrative and character's voice? Is the distance between your characters and your readers as much as you intended? or as much as your reader needs?
  

Hope this helps move your story along....

The answers to the Sunday snap photos were - The Battle of Hastings - 1066; the Norman, William the Conqueror won the battle and spoke French; the saxon, King Harold got an arrow in his eye and died on the battle field.
To those who sent emails asking where the photo of the garden was taken, it was at Rosemoor, the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden, in Devon.