Reading to Write: Interiority as shown in The Life of the Mind by Christine Smallwood

Last week, I submitted the beginning of the novel I’m working on (referred to for now as ‘Trust’) to the NAD writing group. I mostly got the feedback I expected— that it was a better beginning than where I had originally started, but there was good feedback on plot points that weren’t laid out clearly, ways I could better populate the space and flesh out the setting and overall environment, choices to consider about language/formality. But! There was also a strong note on including more interiority.

To some extent, I wonder if my writing without substantial interiority is a reflection of my own lack of an inner monologue. It is actually the way I experience the world! But, that’s not what the average reader comes to a book for. If I want to write it from the perspective of someone without an inner monologue, I’d have to work to make that really clear— because it isn’t that I don’t have an inner life, it just isn’t expressed initially through language.

Anyway, this weekend, I read The Life of the Mind by Christine Smallwood. I don’t remember where I got the referral to buy it— I’m going to guess it was The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast, but it could have also been on The Garrett. Anyway, either way, it was a great read, and an absolute master class in interiority.

There was very little plot— mostly chatting with a handful of people. If I needed evidence that plot isn’t crucial if the writing and concept are strong, this is perfect. But more importantly for this week’s project, it was driven by her interiority— her unique, self-criticizing perspective on everything that was happening around her. I felt a bit bad for her partner— he seems almost to be an afterthought, she doesn’t seem to worry about his feelings about her at all— it is everyone else’s perspective that she dwells on.

Despite the small amount of true plot, it was a rich, engaging, intellectual book. I truly enjoyed it and, while I think that level of interiority would be inappropriate for the story I’m currently working on, it’s a great reference when I feel like I’m going too far.