Character Interiority: What it is, Why it Matters (& Why You Probably Need More in Your Novel)
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So, you feel like your plot is super solid, your characters are compelling, and yet readers still aren't fully connecting with your novel. What's the problem?
It may be because you're lacking one core element of strong fiction writing: character interiority.
This is one of the most essential elements of a strong fiction narrative but one of the most misunderstood. As a developmental editor, I often find that authors can push their character interiority further to make the narrative more engaging and compelling.
Today, we're going to do a deep study of character interiority, defining what it is, why it is so important, and how you can tactically incorporate more character interiority into your manuscript. We’ll also go through some examples of character interiority from published novels.
What Is Character Interiority?
Let's start with a definition: what is character interiority? In short, this is what is going on within your POV character's head — their thoughts, their feelings, their emotional reactions to things. It encompasses everything happening in their interior world. I often call it the character's emotional landscape. It includes their memories, their sources of inner conflict or debate, their personal opinions, etc.
When you put that interiority on the page, it helps the reader feel so much more connected to that character and allows us to see how they are reacting to and responding to the events of the plot. In turn, this helps us understand how we should be interpreting the events of the story.
Character interiority essentially invites the reader to fully inhabit the POV character's experience and really step inside their head, experiencing the story as they are. No matter what genre you are writing in or what POV you are writing from, a novel will almost always incorporate character interiority.
Why Character Interiority Is So Important
Now, let's talk a bit about why character interiority is so important to strong fiction writing. Not only is character interiority an essential component of effective fiction, it is kind of the whole point of reading fiction to begin with!
We read novels because they allow us to step inside a character's shoes, which is something that any other storytelling medium doesn't allow us to do. For example, with a play or a TV show, we are removed from being inside the characters' minds.
But when we read a book, on the other hand, we live vicariously through the characters, and we get to experience whatever interesting situation they are being put in. For instance, when we're reading a thriller, we feel as if we are in that high-stakes, dangerous situation ourselves, and when we're reading a romance, we get to experience being swept off our feet just like the character is.
Character interiority is largely what compels us to connect with the characters in a story, which in turn gets us more invested in seeing how their journey is going to pan out. When you get character interiority right, it's going to make the difference between your reader putting down the story midway through or staying engaged all the way to the end, and it ensures that the reader is going to have a lasting impression of your story after they finish the final page.
How to Write Character Interiority
Now, let's talk about tactical techniques for how to incorporate character interiority in a story.
Remember that you can't see interiority just by looking at a person or a character. We can see their physical responses, their gestures, their facial expressions, etc., but we don't know what is actually going on inside their mind and how they are feeling and emotionally responding to events.
So, to show interiority in a story, you need to go beyond just the physical reactions that are visible externally. This will add so much emotional depth to the scene and give the reader more context for the why behind a character's reaction.
A good way to think about this is if your scene is only showing what a camera could record. We should not only see all of the external action but also what's going on through the lens of our POV character. If you're reviewing your manuscript and you notice that everything you describe in a scene could be picked up by a camera, then that's a good sign that you should incorporate a bit more interiority.
Now, let's talk about the three main techniques for tactically including interiority in your manuscript:
1. Narration
The first is through straight narration. This is where the narrator directly tells the reader how the character is thinking or feeling or responding to the events of the story. It could be a description of their emotional response.
For instance, an example would be:
Her excitement surged as she approached the stage.
2. Direct thought
The next technique is by showing your POV character's direct thoughts. This is where what is passing through the character's mind is put on the page verbatim. You can incorporate this whether you're writing in first person or in close third person.
For instance, you could have a line like —
I can't believe he said that.
— where we understand that that thought is passing through the POV character's mind. In close third person, that line would be italicized to differentiate it from the third person narration.
3. Free indirect discourse
Finally, we have free indirect discourse. This is a narrative technique used in third person narration where the character's thoughts are relayed to the reader within the narration, with little differentiation between the character's thoughts and the narration itself.
This could sound something like:
He ran his hand through his hair and furrowed his brow. Why would she do that?
We understand that "Why would she do that?" is his thought; however, it's not being presented as a thought. We're just interpreting it that way because we know we are experiencing the story from his POV already.
Example 1: Verity by Colleen Hoover
Now that we know what character interiority is, why it's so important, and how you can incorporate it in your manuscript, let's go through a couple of examples from real published books. The first example is from Verity by Colleen Hoover:
When Corey texted me last night to let me know about the meeting today, it was the first time I'd heard from him in months. I was sitting at my computer desk, staring down at an ant as it crawled across my big toe.
The ant was alone, fluttering left and right, up and down, searching for food or friends. He seemed confused by his solitude, or maybe he was excited for his newfound freedom. I couldn't help but wonder why he was alone. Ants usually travel with an army.
The fact that I was curious about the ant's current situation was a clear sign I needed to leave my apartment. I was worried that, after being cooped up caring for my mother for so long, once I stepped out into the hallway I would be just as confused as that ant. Left, right, inside, outside, where are my friends, where is the food?
Externally, what's happening in this scene? The narrator is looking at an ant in her apartment, but there is so much more going on on the page than just a description of her looking at the ant.
Once we enter the second paragraph, we start to dip into her interiority, where we see her wonder why the ant is alone and what the ant is searching for and thinking and feeling. Then she starts comparing it to her own situation and contemplating her personal condition.
All of this is interiority. It helps us understand the emotional state of our narrator and encourages us to inhabit her headspace.
Example 2: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Here's the next example from *Sea of Tranquility* by Emily St. John Mandel:
The first stop on the book tour was New York City, where Olive did signing events at two bookstores and then found an hour to walk in Central Park before the bookseller dinner. The Sheep Meadow at twilight: silvery light, wet leaves on the grass. The sky was crowded with low-altitude airships, and in the distance the falling-star lights of commuter aircraft streaked upward toward the colonies. Olive paused for a moment to orient herself, then walked toward the ancient double silhouette of the Dakota. Hundred-story towers rose up behind it.
A book tour paradox: Olive missed her husband and daughter with a desperate passion, but also she liked very much being alone in the streets of New York at dusk, and then a day later alone in Salt Lake City at eight thirty in the morning on a Saturday in the bright autumn air, birds wheeling in white light. There's something to be said for looking up at a clear blue sky and knowing that it isn't a dome.
Did Olive wish she could live on Earth? She vacillated on the question.
Unlike the first example, here we are in close third person narration rather than first person. However, we still get a lot of character interiority. The first paragraph really establishes what's going on in the scene, and then in the second paragraph, we begin to dip into the POV character's head. We understand that she's missing her daughter and husband, but that she's enjoying being alone at the same time. In the final paragraph, we see that free indirect discourse with the line, "Did Olive wish she could live on Earth?" where her thought is blended in the narration.
I hope this helped you better understand character interiority, why it is so important, and how you can incorporate it today in your work in progress to make it so much stronger and more emotionally resonant. Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!