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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29908
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29908
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> "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."_

Original score: 1