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Daily Writing Tip — Jul 7, 2026

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Interiority isn't just the character's internal thoughts. It's the character THINKING about those thoughts. Dissecting his impressions of the world.

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📖 Notes & analysis

The reason this works is that raw thought only shows what a character notices, while thinking about the thought shows what they value, fear, or refuse to admit. That second layer is where personality lives. Say a character sees an old friend across the street and thinks, "I should say hello." Interiority pushes further: he wonders why the thought felt like an obligation rather than a wish, and what that reveals about how the friendship quietly curdled. Now the moment carries history and self-awareness, not just observation.

The caution is that this trick is seasoning, not the meal. If every stray impression gets unpacked and cross-examined, the character stops living in the scene and starts narrating a seminar. Let some thoughts pass unexamined so the examined ones actually land.

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