Just Write

Another POV choice: Free Indirect Speech

POV = Point of view.

Point of view is . . . simply. . .  from the point of view of whoever is telling the story.

Writers get to choose who tells the story. It’s a very simple concept, made difficult by the many choice of who gets to tell the story: first person, second person, third person (limited, close, omniscient).

Here’s another point of view choice: The Free Indirect Style.

I’m posting about the free indirect style of point of view because I’m fascinated with learning new things and also because a friend, whom I admire and is an excellent writer said, “I have found that I use it [free indirect point of view] a lot in my writing, and always have, without even knowing that’s what it was.  It’s a very “natural” voice for me and, I think, one that’s easy to read.”

Ready? Here we go:

Free indirect speech is a style of third-person narration which uses some of the characteristics of third-person along with the essence of first-person direct speech.”  Wikipedia

There are two kinds of indirect speech:  free and normal.

“What distinguishes free indirect speech from normal indirect speech is the lack of an introductory expression such as ‘He said’ or ‘he thought’.

Free indirect discourse can also be described as a ‘technique of presenting a character’s voice partly mediated by the voice of the author, or, in the words of the French narrative theorist Gerard Genette, ‘the narrator takes on the speech of the character, or, if one prefers, the character speaks through the voice of the narrator, and the two instances then are merged.’ Randall Stevenson, Modernist Fiction.” Wikipedia

Examples  (Wikipedia):

Quoted or direct speech:

He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. “And just what pleasure have I found, since I came into this world?” he asked.

Normal indirect speech:

He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. He asked himself what pleasure he had found since he came into the world.

Free indirect speech:

He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. And just what pleasure had he found, since he came into this world?  Wikipedia

Is your head spinning? Mine is!

Reading examples of the free indirect style of pov might help:

Jane Austen was one of the first practitioners of free indirect speech with Emma.

The Irish author James Joyce also used free indirect speech in works such as “The Dead” (see Dubliners), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses.”   Wikipedia

No matter what point of view you choose. . . just write!

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