Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A The use of short, concise sentences to suggest a withdrawn character

"I smiled. I ate. I spoke. I listened. I left." If you are going to write from a depressed point of view, I don't think these are the thoughts of a depressed person. For a depressed person, t...

posted 7y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:07Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29908
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:56:33Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29908
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T06:56:33Z (almost 5 years ago)
> "I smiled. I ate. I spoke. I listened. I left."

If you are going to write from a depressed point of view, I don't think these are the thoughts of a depressed person.

For a depressed person, these are lies. They do not necessarily lie to themselves.

A more convincing internal dialogue is what they are really thinking. Depression is largely playing a negativity game, that you cannot help but play. Nothing matters. Everything is shit. Life has no meaning and there is nothing to really look forward to --- except disappointing yourself and others and ruining everything.

You can show that; I have an example off the top of my head. (consider it an illustration only; you have to get into the mindset for your character and write in your own voice.)

### Example:

I hung up, and put down the phone without looking. It slipped off the table and crashed on the floor. It's probably broken, there goes four hundred dollars. I don't have the energy to pick it up and check. What difference would it make anyway? If it's broken, it's broken.

I have to go to this stupid party. That means I have to shower. That means I have to get out of this chair. I sat for another two minutes hoping some brilliant excuse would come to me, but my mind is a blank. Plus I'd need my phone to make it, and it's probably broken.

I leveraged myself out of the chair, and retrieved my phone. It wasn't broken. Too bad, I hate this phone.

After my shower, I can't stand the idea of having to pick out clothes. I stand before the mirror naked. Getting fat. Getting wrinkled. Dying more every day, like every other animal on this planet. I tried to fake a smile, for the party. Awful. Try again. Still awful, I look like a corpse.

I steel myself for the torture of selecting an outfit, and think to myself, _"You know the drill. Pretend to smile, pretend to eat, pretend to listen, pretend you have a big day tomorrow and escape."_

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-08-25T10:13:47Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 1