Good depictions of Telepathy

[Clockworkbot]

Hi all,

I've played around with telepathy/mind-communication and a couple of my stories, and have seen it in other peoples' too a fair bit - seems like a classic trope of Science Fiction, but hard to nail on the written page. The trouble seems to be making it feel natural without explaining what is going on too much, and differentiating it from normal dialogue.

Does anyone have any recommendations of writers who have done it really well, or thoughts on how to do it?

Cheers!

 

[The Judge]

I use it in my fantasies, and simply write the mind-talk as I would ordinary conversation, albeit written in italics and without quotation marks around it. Mostly my POVs are from the people doing the talking, so there's no problem showing it. On the rare occasions it's non-POV characters mind-talking to each other, I show them interacting -- ie facial expressions changing as they talk or one nods -- and have the POVer guess they are talking even if, obviously, he doesn't know what they are saying.

Exactly what problems are you having with it that you need to explain what is going on?

 

[RX-79G]

I would either go the technological route and make it involve implants that allow remotely sensing electrical potentials in other mental implants or just regular brains. Could be on purpose, or an accidental result of the equipment.

OR, I would go the subtle route where the interactions between minds isn't words or images but the kind of thing where people act in unison, come to the same conclusions at the same time, sense the motivations of others, etc. I'd keep that kind of thing mysterious - happens due to quantum entanglement near a weird alien stardrive, etc.

 

[J-Sun]

I'm not generally the biggest fan of psi but the first thing that popped into my head is the best "psi combat" I've ever read, which is in James H. Schmitz's The Witches of Karres. I know there are other more general and great examples (other of Schmitz's work qualifies, for instance) but I'll have to think on it more.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I think we need to know what they're telepathing, really. Is it mind reader, mind meld, remote viewing, influencing, psychic conversations, intuition, clairaudience, gut reactions, etc etc.

pH

 

[tinkerdan]

You can really get away with a number of things; but I don't care much for pages of italics so I try to create special quote marks.
<like this> or <<this>> maybe//this// and I've seen *this* just try to be consistent; although there was an instance where I wanted to differentiate between a few of the odder characters and not have to keep naming the one the thought balloons belonged to.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

I've read a number of great stories involving telepathy. The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester is a terrific novel, wherein telepathy is common, and really drives the storyline. The Demolished Man - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg might be of great use to you. It's set in 1970s New York City, and tells the story of a telepath who is losing his powers. If you want to learn how central to the existence, and identity telepathy is for a human being with the ability, perhaps the story of the gradual disintegration of the life of a person losing their gift might be remarkably valuable to your story.
Dying Inside - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hope these might help! CC

 

[farntfar]

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham is a story about telepathy

It has good descriptions of the main characters' discovery of their telepathic powers, how they developped it, and discovered it was both a blessing and a curse in a post apocalyptic and very puritan society.

 

[Nick B]

I use implant suites and advanced technology to allow non communication, which for all intents and purposes is no different to telepathic communication. To denote this kind of communication I use small caps, or small font caps and no speechmarks, this is made apparent early on so the reader then knows what is goin on.

 

[Clockworkbot]

Thanks all for responses. I guess my issues are twofold:

- Generally: How to introduce telepathy into the plot so that it seems like a natural part of the world and doesn't require intense info-dumping up front,
and
- Specifically: How to use punctuation, phrasing etc. to make it come across on the page as interesting, believable, and different to normal speech.

I've read a number of great stories involving telepathy. The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester is a terrific novel, wherein telepathy is common, and really drives the storyline. The Demolished Man - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg might be of great use to you. It's set in 1970s New York City, and tells the story of a telepath who is losing his powers. If you want to learn how central to the existence, and identity telepathy is for a human being with the ability, perhaps the story of the gradual disintegration of the life of a person losing their gift might be remarkably valuable to your story.
Dying Inside - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hope these might help! CC

Both have been on my reading list for a while anyway so will bump to the top - thanks for the tip!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Cool, Clockworkbot! (I think I'd start with Dying Inside, btw...very powerful stuff.) Maybe one day we'll see an excerpt from your story in the Critiques section. Best of luck with the writing, CC

 

[ErikB]

Chronicles of the Cheysuli is another good book series featuring this communication. Its by Jennifer Robinson.

 

[hopewrites]

Everyone thinks they're normal. Stories involving characters who are not normal deal with how they themselves realize they're not normal (if this realization is made when young the character may view others as being abnormal for not being like themselves. The young are tenacious in their view of themselves as normal. Hehe.) without outward markings that tell "HEY!! I'M DIFFERENT FROM YOU! WHAT UP WIT DAT?!?" it's ether easier or harder to convey those differences to readers.

How common is telepathic ability? Does everyone have it? Can you use it to convey complex thoughts and ideas, or just basic stuff? Is it a language unto itself? Images? Sounds? Tastes? Smells? Feelings?

How is it directed? Can anyone hear the characters mental projections or only the capable within a specific range (perhaps set by the senders mental power) or is it directable to specific minds?



And how to answer all those questions without infodumping? Spread it out. Let us discover with the character what it is they can do.

As a reader I give you permission to leave me in the dark about some things. I ask you to trust me to be imaginative enough to come up with plausible solutions, in return I'll trust you to present me with the correct plausible solutions when and if I need them.