Writing 101: Self-narration

For once, I shall write about writing. Of course, I am an amateur, but hope anyone who is reading this will benefit from it :)

Self-narration.

Well, the concept is kinda stupid, but I found it useful. I have no idea, in fact, if everyone does this or am I the only one... so... let's get started before I sound stupid.

When I was a child, I love to narrate the things that I'm doing. So if I'm walking to the kitchen to get a drink. In my head I'll say it as if I'm a character in a book and I'm executing what the words say. So in my head I'll think of something like this:

"I walk into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of juice out of the fridge. Unscrewing the cap, I drank the juice from the bottle. It was sweet and my insides felt cool."

No joke. I really think like this in my head while I'm just... grabbing juice from the fridge. Hahaha! Am I weird? Anyway, I found that self-narration is fun. Firstly, I pass time and I get my brain thinking instead of letting it idle. (idiosyncrasy #1: I can never let my mind rest. If there's nothing for me to think, I'll think of my story plot) Secondly, I help myself go through the entire descriptive narration. Since I'm always doing something, there will always be something to narrate.

Once you get the hang of it, you can easily narrate skimpy actions in stories. In fact, what I do is narrate ahead of my actions. Then while doing the actions, I'll notice other details (like how my fingers ache when I closed them on the fridge handle.... or something not so wimpy :P) and then I'll form and add the details into sentences. Honestly, it's more of a yeah-I-can-describe-scenes-but-im-gonna-practise-cos-i-have-nothing-else-to-do kind of activity.

It might start off weird, but soon you'll be talking to yourself in your head all day long. Yes, my mind is sort of like Meia. It never shuts up, but I don't have photographic memory (awwww!)

So last night, before I fell asleep, I found myself narrating again. Italised sentences are the initial lines. The others are added after much thought and self-talk in my head.

I lie awake in my bed, covered in cold sweat. I want to sleep but i couldn't. The words that he said ran through my mind like an endless movie. I could feel completely indifferent about it, but I don't. Not when my life's happiness depended on it.

I took my folded blanket and covered it over me, not bothering to unfold the blanket. Despite the cool temperature in the room, I feel warm.

Try to sleep, I told myself. But I might as well talk to a wall. My eyes stung a little, but I doubt they will become swollen tomorrow. I have done a marvelous job at keeping my tears to a minimum. No saying what tomorrow might bring, every day is a land mine.

Yeah, something like that.

I'm going to finish off with two more posts and then I'm headed to bed :)