I use something like this technique. There are certain phrases from my internal monologue that I've flagged as indicators that I'm being ridiculous. When I start using phrases appropriate to the dramatic climax of a movie ("I can't do this! I should never have tried!" or "He just doesn't care, does he?") I make myself check whether the degree of drama is suited to my actual situation (parallel parking, or trying to talk to someone who's engrossed in what he's reading). If the level of drama is way too high for the actual situation, I need to laugh at myself and give it a calmer try.
I also learned while working in a domestic violence shelter that even in genuinely dramatic situations (woman arrives at the door fleeing abuser), a dramatic response still isn't helpful. At that point you need to act normally (speak softly, get her a glass of water, help her calm down) rather than heightening the drama by rushing around and generally acting as though you were in a movie.
At that point you need to act normally (speak softly, get her a glass of water, help her calm down) rather than heightening the drama by rushing around and generally acting as though you were in a movie.
"Hollywood movie" =/= "movie with genuinely intelligent characters". I'd say, in such dramatic situations aspire to fully "rational" and reality-based reasoning but at the same time keep the "movie" attitude and self-image of a driven, altruistic and determined hero - that's what you (probably) want to want to be, after all.
Our internal dialogues are often exactly that: dialogues that suit a narrative. Narrative building (the basis of the narrative fallacy) is often quite detrimental to attempts to think clearly. It is therefore beneficial to detect and correct for biases introduced from narrative building. But it can be hard to distinguish a 'clear' thought from one that is a consequence of a narrative.
I offer a heuristic to make the distinction between a thought which is a direct attempt to model reality and a thought which is based solely on its suitability to a narrative:
Two examples:
1. When buying something: Often times, when I'm standing in a Starbucks line for a coffee and try to imagine why I'm standing there (when I can make my own coffee both at my home and at my office), I am usually returned with a feeling of being part of The People Who Do Things. Or one of being a Hard Worker who needs his Coffee to do his Hard Work with Focus and Determination. It fits too well while introducing a character in a novel. After I started noticing this, I've been realizing that coffee is not as useful in improving my focus as I thought it was earlier.
2. In conversations: This must be very familiar to most people. Anecdotes get highly embellished based on their suitability to a story. Also the way they are usually 'narrated' rather than just 'conveyed'. Realizing this when it happens can be quite useful.
Other examples?