He Thought, "How does the DM know what I'm thinking?"

[the Jester]

In my story hours I sometimes explore chains of thought of a pc.

But how do I know what the pc was thinking?

Well, once in a while the player said something about their thought processes during or after the game. More often I'm putting down my interpetation of that character's thoughts given their actions. Also- and this might just be the most common reason for me- it's a good way to sneak a little information about something for the readers, especially if it's something that they might not otherwise 'get' without more context.

What about you, fellow story hour authors?

 

[el-remmen]

Point of View is very important in writing - now, it is arguable that it is not as important in story hour writing because it is an informal re-telling of the events of a game - but in my own re-telling I avoid ever revealing the PCs or NPCs thoughts, preferring to show how they feel or what they think through actions, expressions and/or dialogue.

I find change of point of view to be jarring (though a few times I have not been paying close enough attention to my writing and ended up doing it), especially when you start exploring PCs thoughts you run into the problem of contradiciting the player's experience in a way they may find annoying.

The only exception to this I make, are interludes where a PC is off by himself and exploration of what they think is needed since there is no one to have a dialogue with - but in those cases I discuss it in detail with the player and in some cases I let them write that part and I just edit and tweak it to make it fit in.

 

[carpedavid]

I tend to use my player's OOC comments as inspiration for their character's thoughts. Beyond that, I just try to keep it in character.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

I usually try to fill in the PCs thoughts, mostly because they usually fill in the story better than I can at some points, and they can frequently be amusing. I use a lot of the OOC commentary said to fill in these spots, as well as my 'gut-instinct' of what the PC would have done. So far, I haven't had any problems with the players not liking how their characters were portrayed, despite both of them reading the thread, and one checking it daily for updates.