'Character Letters' & stream of consciousness

I had some time to kill in the library today, so I painstakingly located William Faulkner and delved into the beginning of As I Lay Dying.

My reaction was pretty much, Wow.  This was my introduction to the whole "stream of consciousness" style.  Faulkner basically says good-bye to all rules of grammar and narrative storytelling, and simply writes the book as he feels it, much in the way you might write a poem or a person's unique speech pattern.  Some authors always write dialogue this way, but with stream of consciousness, it's even incorporated into the description and action.

I wouldn't say it's my favorite writing style, but it is definitely extraordinary.  I would not typically read a book about subcultures and history of the Deep South, but within the first few chapters, I really felt drawn to the story and its (sometimes vulgar) characters in a kind of morbidly early mourning for their dying loved one.  There was a vivid sense of what each character was like, and their attitude to each other.  I love the idea of writing like this and am going to try it...

Related to understanding your characters, there's a new writing program/event for bloggers called Character Letters, in which you write letters based on prompts and from the perspective of your own or an existing character.  I plan on joining in sometime this month--here are the guidelines and here is the first edition--check it out!  I may just end up writing fanfiction--well, anything to break my novel-writer's block.  :)