Novelists’ Inner World: Writers hear voices of characters and other alternate personalities, who won’t tell you what they know unless you ask.

Many writers have said that in the course of writing, they may hear, converse with, see, and/or inhabit the multiple personalities (characters, narrators, muses) of their inner world. But beyond what is relevant to the novel in progress, most writers don’t seek out, socialize with, or interview their voices to find out who they think they are and all they know.

In exploring your inner world, especially your hidden network of personalities, should you worry about finding out too much, things you really don’t want to know? No need to worry. Alternate personalities tend to withhold any information that they think you are not ready to know, or which they think is none of your business. Of course, the better you know your personalities, the readier you will be to know things, and the readier they will be to share.

Are alternate personalities and their inner world “just imagination”? Yes and no. Yes, due to the fact that they are psychological products of your mind (just as you are). And no, since they have a subjective sense of their own personhood and seem to have minds of their own (just as you do).

Another sense in which alternate personalities are not “just imagination” is that they can come “out” and temporarily take control of behavior. Some writers have said that characters occasionally do this, which underlines the fact that characters are really a kind of alternate personality.

Although alternate personalities of whatever kind can come out, they usually don’t. They typically spend most of their time behind-the-scenes, in the person’s inner world. It would be incorrect to call this inner world “the unconscious,” because the personalities who live there are conscious, and usually know more about you (the regular, host personality) than you know about them.