Free Indirect Discourse

[Deleted member 2173]

Hello All,

I would like to get some thoughts on using Free Indirect Discourse as a POV. I seem to want to write this way naturally.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Probably best to define and give examples of your own work seeing as you're curious about reaction to your writing, as mentioned in another post.

Not sure what thoughts you want...

I absolutely blur the lines between narrator voice and character inner monologue, where some parts could be me the writer, or the character's thought, or probably more accurately, the character's thought filtered through the narrative voice. While I occasionally italicize truly direct thoughts, most enter the text through narrative filter, and I'd be surprised if there is a single instance of "she thought" as in a typical indirect discourse, because when I do indirect, I leave out the redundancy created by it being italicized anyhow.

Free indirect discourse (as I'm defining it) isn't a conscious choice, per se, it's just how I tend to write. I like it if I bother to think about it, but I usually don't, LOL.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

An example of what I do:

It struck him. How many monks and priests served Burdenis’s shrine? Everyone’s lives were in danger. Meliu’s life. “Shadows from the Stone?”

The three middle lines could be the character or the narrator, or as I think of it, the character blurred or filtered by narrative voice.

I've never had a reader mention anything about these sorts of things, but then I am in tight with character's POV and fade out to hover around their head (so to speak) on a fairly regular basis, and in only one POV per scene. Where I think danger could lurk with this sort of tactic would be in a 3rd Om, where you're going in and out of a variety of character POV in a single scene. This would have the potential to add another layer for the reader to keep straight.

 

[La Volpe]

I actually had to look up this term. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much the same as close third person. In which case I'm pretty sure it's very widely used, and I've not often come across complaints about it.

Or am I missing something here?

 

[Holoman]

I thought the same as La Volpe, seems like close third person to me. I would always italicise a direct thought though, otherwise it could across as a mixture of third and first person.

e.g.

She walked through the door and saw a book on the floor. How did that get there? She stooped down to pick it up.
She walked through the door and saw a book on the floor. How did this get here? She stooped down to pick it up.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yeah, I thought I mentioned the 3rd intimate thing but must have deleted it and forgot to put it back in.

Without an example a reader had an issue with, it's hard for me to imagine why someone would have an issue without being a part of a greater POV break that this exacerbates. Some sort of hyper analysis maybe?

 

[FifthView]

I actually had to look up this term. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much the same as close third person. In which case I'm pretty sure it's very widely used, and I've not often come across complaints about it.

Or am I missing something here?

I had to look it up also, only to discover that it's the name for something I've already been contemplating recently.

Yeah, it's fairly common now. Lately I'm not fond of the terms "close third" or "tight third" and am prone to call it "intimate third" instead, just to distinguish between third that sticks close to a character's POV from third that incorporates a character's voice.* (I suppose another nitpick might be in whether something coming from within can be called close or tight. Is my heart close to my body? Heh. )

The OP was a little too generic or vague for me in the phrase "using Free Indirect Discourse as a POV." F.I.D. can, as far as I can tell, be used with 3rd limited or 3rd omniscient and even, if we are splitting hairs, 3rd limited-intimate. So "as" POV had me scratching my head a little bit wondering what exactly was meant.


*Edit: And actually, I'm not saying that free indirect discourse is a requirement for 3rd intimate, although these hair-splitting thoughts are sending my mind into a tailspin. This idea of distinguishing a character voice from a character POV is something I've only recently been contemplating.

 

[Heliotrope]

Yeah, I feel that ID is pretty common now a days. People call it third close, or third intimate or whatever, IMO it's all variations of the same thing and I'm hard pressed now a days to find an author that doesn't do it.