I'm a writer. Whether or not I'm any good is a matter of opinion and is not up for discussion at this particular moment. The fact of the matter remains, I am a writer. As such, there are voices in my head. Some loud, some soft, some angry (especially in rush hour traffic), some happy, some insistent, some meek, some serious, some hysterically funny and some...well...just hysterical. I don't know if everyone has these voices. Since I've lived with them for more than 50 years now, it seems natural to me and I can't imagine anyone not having them, although I suppose it's possible, likely even. Perhaps everyone does have them, but not everyone acknoweledges them for fear of being considered "strange." If that's the case, all I can say is: "Have you looked around lately?" I think "strange" is pretty much the "norm" these days.
I will go out on a limb and say that the voices in our heads are essential for all of us, because they ARE us. Each voice represents a different aspect of our personality and is key to us understanding, and accepting, who we really are. Even, and dare I say, especially, the voices that make us the most uncomfortable. Those voices that represent aspects of our personalities that we wished didn't exist at all. Perhaps that is why we sometimes pretend not to hear any of the voices, when they whisper to us in the quiet of night. But we need to listen to and acknowledge them, if for no other reason than to better understand them and learn how to keep those undesirable sides of our personalities at bay.
If you're a writer, then simply listening to the voices in your head is not enough. You need to talk back and engage them in conversation. We write what we know and the more we know about ourselves, including knowing all of the various aspects of ourselves, in the form of the voices in our heads, the better our writing will become (Hello! Can you say "characters" people?) Don't forget to take lots of notes, too. Some of those voices can get a little talkative!
Who's talking in your head? Let's hear about the voices you hear in the wee small hours of the morning!