Very few people say exactly what they are thinking in any given moment, yet there is no shortage of opinions running through every person’s mind.

An excellent listener focuses intently on what a speaker is saying. A more typical person listens with only part of their mind, and formulates a response with another part⏤all while evaluating and judging the speaker in an interior monologue of private thoughts and opinions. A careful observer can discern these interior thoughts based on subtle, and often unconscious, facial expressions and body language, which often reveal a disconnect between what someone says, and what they really think or believe. The cliché about interior thoughts is the trope about someone asking how they look in an outfit and their friend or partner telling a kind lie, but it can get so much more interesting than that. The truth is that almost everyone has feelings to hide, because almost everyone has to interact with people they have strong feelings about, and this dynamic disconnect can make for an interesting story. Consider using this tension between thoughts and words as the basis for your next story.

Below are some private assessments a listener might have about a speaker in various situations. Use these or similar constructs as the basis for a potential story in which you explore the words they use to navigate the situation versus the thoughts running through their mind. Offer a direct peek into their interior monologue, and/or use facial expressions and body language to help reveal hidden thoughts.

  • Absolutely insufferable: Your main character is at a strategic planning meeting for work, which is also attended by a micromanaging “leader” who loves to hear himself talk, and who is an expert on every topic under the sun⏤including those he has no direct knowledge or experience of, lol.
  • Potentially explosive: Your main character is at home with her partner, and has just asked him for a divorce. His reaction moves from shocked, to anguished, to furious.
  • Not worth giving feedback: Your main character is at lunch with his friend who recounts, yet again, a deeply unhealthy family dynamic for which she is ultimately responsible. Nothing he has said in the past has had any impact on his friend’s ability to see her own culpability in the situation.
  • Shocked and betrayed: Your main character is having coffee with a close relative after attending worship service at their church. The liturgy was so unexpectedly disturbing that your character is confused and disheartened.
  • So very dreamy: Your main character is at the doctor’s office with his ailing father, and strikes up a conversation with another person who is waiting for their appointment. Based on her clothes and jewelry, they are not of the same social class, but there is definite chemistry.

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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