books

How to Write in Free Indirect Style

January 4, 2019 by Michael Santos

Free indirect style is my favorite form of third person point of view. It is a narrative style that combines the benefits of first and third person. Here’s why I prefer to use it in my novels…

But first, if you want more information on Point of View in Stories, don’t miss my full article on the subject.

The advantage of the novel.

Free indirect style Storytelling can be accomplished through a wide variety of media, and technological advances make that more true with every passing year.

As digital media like television, movies, and streaming services captivate audiences today, you might wonder how and why the novel has survived. The reason is that every medium has its advantages over the others.

The novel uniquely allows writers to explore the internal conflicts of characters.

A television show or movie can’t deliver the thoughts of a character without voice over or clever graphics. Visual media has other advantages over the written word, but books are the best for bringing us close to the deepest levels of a fictional person.

That is why they remain such popular and powerful methods of storytelling.

First person point of view and internal conflict.

First person has many benefits (which I detail in my article on Point of View in Stories). Chief among them is the ability to maximize the advantage of the novel—that is, the closeness between the reader and the characters’ inner lives.

This point of view gives us a narrator who is a character intimately involved in the events of the story. We see those events, the other characters, and the fictional world through the perspective of that character.

And we become keenly familiar with their internal conflicts over the course of the book.

First person is therefore an ideal choice for its immediacy and its narrow field of focus on the psyche and emotional journey of the protagonist, which is the main advantage of the novel as a storytelling medium.

But it also has its limitations.

There are stories that call for more perspectives than that of just one character. First person restricts us to one narrator, because adding multiple first person narrators is clunky and confusing for the reader.

This begs the question, Is there a narrative style that can deliver the closeness of first person with the flexibility to switch viewpoint characters?

Free indirect style explained.

Third person is the most popular POV in fiction today. It allows the author to have more flexibility and to switch between viewpoints, usually with simple scene and chapter breaks.

However, third person’s limitation is that it creates more narrative distance between the reader and the characters.

Luckily, free indirect style was created to solve this problem. It is a combination of first and third person, with both the intimacy and immediacy of first, and also the flexibility of third.

There are two narrative entities in free indirect style: the third person narrator (the writer) and the character (or multiple characters, if you rotate between them with scene breaks).

The characters “speak” their thoughts directly to the reader in the narration. Instead of the author’s voice on the page, the reader hears the characters’ voices.

Functionally, free indirect style works exactly the same way that first person does. The reader enjoys direct contact with the characters, which creates that same deep interaction with the internal conflicts of the people in the story. However, the writer is still using third person, so they can switch between viewpoints at will.

Elmore Leonard, my favorite author, was the master of this technique. Read his classic crime novel, Get Shorty, for a clinic on how to use free indirect style.

How I use free indirect style.

Or check out my novels. Free indirect style forms the basis and foundation of my narrative prose. I love writing in my characters’ voices.

They are lowlife scumbags, who come up with ill-fated schemes to make illicit fortunes. Then there are the law enforcement professionals tasked with catching those crooks. My own narrative voice is NOT more interesting than theirs. How could it be?

So, I set every scene in the perspective of a character. The narration in that scene comes directly from that person, in their voice. The reader doesn’t hear me at all.

As a reader, I find free indirect style to be the most immersive POV, because it lets me forget that an author is involved in the book. I feel like I’m with the characters, without a writer in between us. They give me their thoughts in real time, as we encounter the story together.

An example.

Here’s a passage from my second novel, Mr. Moneybags. It is set in the viewpoint of a character named Reggie, a twenty-four-year-old car thief. Note that the narration is in his voice. It utilizes his rhythms of speech, his ideas of correct grammar, and his turns of phrase…not mine.

Reggie half listened to Tommy on the way to the airport in the dead of night. Half listened as they rolled their beat-up ’99 Chevy Lumina through rows of parked cars in the lot farthest from the terminals and with the least amount of security, Tommy saying this place wasn’t bad for finding cars. If you were careful. Like the time Butch’d had him steal a Mercedes S-Class, the big silver one on the showroom floor, by the windows. Reggie thought that was all well and good, but the lot didn’t have an M6 tonight, and then he saw the yellow LEDs of an airport cop pulling in for his shift. Meant they couldn’t linger without drawing suspicion. So, what good had Tommy’s story done them? 

They checked the South Park area next. Reggie half listened some more, as Tommy told him the SouthPark Mall was a decent spot during the day, but not now. Reggie wanted to ask, Then why were they there, if it was pointless at night? But didn’t, preferring to get himself ready, man, get hyped up for doing the job and proving himself, not just hearing Tommy go on and on about how great he was.

We get Reggie directly telling us his thoughts about the job, the present situation, and his rival on the auto-theft crew, Tommy. I’m not narrating this section…Reggie is.

That is the power of free indirect style.

Summary.

Let’s review:

The novel is the best storytelling medium for examining the internal life of a character.
First person point of view brings us closest to a character’s internal state, but limits us to one narrator.
Third person point of view gives us the flexibility to switch narrators, but distances the reader from the characters.
Free indirect style combines the advantages of first and third person, while also eliminating the disadvantages. The reader is close to the characters, but the author can switch viewpoints with a scene or chapter break.
Narration in free indirect style uses the viewpoint character’s voice, not the author’s.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it!

Looking for a new thriller?

Check out my supernatural thriller, The Nowhere Game!

The Nowhere Game

Check out my Queen City Crime Series, available on Amazon in Kindle Ebook and print paperback.

No Hard Feelings

Mr. Moneybags

Mean Bones

Get more writing and crime fiction content!

A FREE ebook copy of No Hard Feelings and even more great content is yours, when you join my email newsletter. Subscribe below!

Story Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Great Scenes

December 28, 2018 by Michael Santos

There is nothing more critical to the success of a story, especially a long-form story like a novel, than the writer’s ability to create compelling scenes.

In this article, we’ll discuss scene structure, execution, and how to tell if you’ve written an effective scene or a dud.

Scenes either work or they don’t.

The truth is that the mechanics of scenes are specific and essential. If the writer ignores these mechanics or fails to learn them, their stories will fail to work at their most basic level.

This is because long-form stories are built on collections of scenes. Sometimes each chapter is a single scene, while other authors group multiple scenes together in one chapter.

Either way, the reader’s satisfaction with the story depends on how well these scenes advance the external and internal narratives.

For a scene to work, it needs the following…

Scene structure mirrors story structure.

Scene Structure

Remember the essential components of plot structure from my article on that topic? Here’s a brief refresher, but I recommend reading that post before continuing with this one.

The story opens with the inciting incident, which changes the status quo to the extent that the protagonist must take action. Complications arise in the middle build, giving us twists and turns and driving the story forward with continuous change and progressively rising stakes.

The crisis occurs when the stakes are so high that the protagonist faces a choice between two bad options. When they act on their decision, we have the climax, in which we see how their choice plays out. Finally, the resolution concludes the narrative and shows us how the character and/or circumstances have evolved.

Scenes are just mini-stories.

Every scene follows the same structure that your story does.

Each one should open with an action or a coincidence (as you’ll recall from the section on inciting incidents in the plot structure post). That incident should prompt the character(s) to do something, which will begin the events of the scene.

Complications in the middle should act as small turning points that gradually raise the stakes and the pressure on the characters.

The pressure builds until a character (your protagonist or point of view character) must make a choice at the end of the scene. This is the crisis.

We then see the climax, as they take action based on their choice.

For the vast majority of scenes, you’ll want the resolution to end on a cliffhanger that motivates the reader to continue to the next scene. This is most commonly associated with commercial page-turners, but it applies to all genres and styles of fiction.

Scenes must follow this structure in order to work. Without an inciting incident, middle complications, a crisis, a climax, and a resolution, your scenes won’t resonate with readers.

A question of polarity.

Scenes must also turn. That is, there must be a shift in your protagonist’s quest to get what they consciously want (the external narrative) or what they subconsciously need (the internal narrative).

This is also called a shift in polarity. If the overall state of your character’s journey is positive at the beginning of a scene, the polarity must shift to a negative or a double positive. If it is negative, it means the scene introduces a new setback that prevents the character from achieving their goals. A double positive does the opposite.

Likewise, if the scene opens on a negative polarity, it must shift to a positive or to a double negative. The state of the conflict must improve or get even worse.

If a scene does not include a change in polarity—a turn—it is not a scene. There is no advancement of the story in a passage that does not turn, making it ineffective.

To write an engaging scene, the external and/or internal narratives must progress in some way, either positively or negatively, from where they were at the beginning of the scene.

For more information on external and internal narratives, read my article on them.

Editing your scenes.

When I edit a manuscript (and before I send a manuscript to my editor) I spend most of my time analyzing every scene in the novel.

I ensure that they follow the structure that will make them engaging for the reader. I check that there is a polarity shift by writing a sign (+, -, ++, or –) at the beginning of the scene and a different sign at the end. Finally, I evaluate how the external and internal narratives develop in each one.

Once in awhile, I’ll come across a passage I’ve written that I can’t seem to fix. It won’t turn, I can’t find a polarity shift that leaves an impact on the story, and the scene is ultimately boring.

What do you do when that happens?

You cut the scene.

You wouldn’t build a castle out of stones that have massive cracks in them. The place would come crumbling down. Scenes are the building blocks of stories. They must be solid as well.

Summary.

Okay, let’s review:

The success of a story depends on the writer’s ability to write great scenes.
Scenes either work or they don’t, with little wiggle room. Writers MUST understand the mechanics of scenes.
Scenes are mini-stories that follow the same structure as the overall plot.
Scenes must turn, meaning that there must be a polarity shift from positive to negative, positive to double positive, negative to positive, or negative to double negative.
When editing, cut any scene that you can’t fix. It likely isn’t important to the story if you can’t make it turn.

If you liked this article and found it helpful, please share it!

Looking for a new thriller?

Check out my supernatural thriller, The Nowhere Game!

The Nowhere Game

Check out my Queen City Crime Series, available on Amazon in Kindle Ebook and print paperback.

No Hard Feelings

Mr. Moneybags

Mean Bones

Get more writing and crime fiction content!

A FREE ebook copy of No Hard Feelings and even more great content is yours, when you join my email newsletter. Subscribe below!

Story Writing: External and Internal Conflicts

December 24, 2018 by Michael Santos

In this article, we talk about external and internal conflicts. Conflict drives story. Learn how to use your characters’ conscious wants and subconscious needs to write a killer story that both entertains readers and resonates with them on a deeper level.

Be sure to watch my YouTube video on this subject as well.

A tale of two conflicts.

In every story, you’ll find two main types of conflict that drive the two main types of narratives.

The external conflict drives the external narrative, which is the plot of the book. The internal conflict drives the internal narrative, the arc of a character from the beginning of their journey to the end.

The external conflict occurs when a character consciously wants something. They know that this is their objective, and their actions in the story are fueled by this desire. Conflict occurs when some external obstacle prevents them from reaching that objective.

In short, this conflict creates the situation, or plot, of the novel.

The internal conflict occurs when a character subconsciously needs something. This implies that the character may not know what their internal objective is. Often, they must endure the trials and tribulations of the external conflict in order to learn that what they needed all along was different from what they wanted.

In short, this conflict creates a character’s arc and development as they experience internal change.

The internal narrative is also the element of the story that connects to the reader on a human level. We may find plot intellectually interesting and entertaining, but it is the character’s internal struggle that we relate to most. We can deeply empathize with coming of age stories, tales of redemption, and crises of identity (all viable internal conflicts) because they’re universal in real life.

These narratives make us feel more invested in the characters, which in turn, makes us more invested in the external narrative, as we watch to see what happens to these relatable fictional people next.

For my money, the best stories balance the impacts of the external and internal conflicts.

What does this mean for different writers?

How do we practically apply these principles to our writing, especially in various genres?

Conflict in commercial fiction.

In commercial fiction (such as the popular genres), the external conflict is prioritized, while the internal conflict becomes a major subplot that enhances our experience with the plot. The situation of the story is the main attraction for the reader. Meanwhile, the characters’ internal conflicts add to the stakes of the plot and make us care deeply about the resolution.

For example, a homicide detective consciously wants to catch a killer in the external conflict. This forms the plot of the book, as the investigation is the main attraction. But perhaps this case is personal, because symbolically, if the detective catches the murderer, she’ll redeem herself from a terrible mistake she made in her past.

That internal redemption story adds another layer of stakes to the case, while at the same time connecting us to the detective at a human level.

So, the external narrative is the priority, but a compelling internal narrative is crucial to the successful execution of the plot.

To put it another way, in commercial fiction, the best plot means nothing without a significant internal story to give it emotional weight.

For more information about using external and internal conflicts in crime fiction, read my post on how to write suspenseful thrillers!

Conflict in literary fiction.

Meanwhile, literary fiction prioritizes the internal narrative. The main attraction for a literary reader is the character’s change over the course of the novel. The external narrative provides the context and catalyst for that change.

For example, is To Kill a Mockingbird a legal thriller in which our focus is on Atticus and his court case? Or is it a coming of age story about Scout? Remember that a coming of age narrative is internal, because it tells us how a character develops within the context of external situations.

Is The Great Gatsby about Gatsby and whether or not he gets the girl and survives the mob? Or is it about Nick and his internal change?

Of course, there is plenty of cross-over between these two generalized explanations of external and internal narratives in literary and commercial fiction. There are commercial books that prioritize the internal and literary books with strong external plots.

The crucial point here is that a great writer will be able to use both types of conflict to achieve different effects, depending on their goals for any given project.

A note on point of view.

One interesting observation I’ll share is that you can often pinpoint which narrative is prioritized in a book by examining the point of view character.

In a commercial novel, the story is usually told by the character at the center of the external conflict. In a literary novel, your POV character is typically the person at the heart of the internal conflict.

This makes sense, because in both cases, the reader spends the most time with the character who has the most to gain or lose in the conflict that is the most interesting in that type of fiction.

Back to our examples.

Let’s go back to the To Kill a Mockingbird example and compare that novel to the legal thrillers of today. Scout is at the center of the coming of age story. The essential questions the reader asks in that conflict focus on what kind of person Scout will become after experiencing the story. It’s logical, then, that the narrative will be most engaging from Scout’s point of view, and not from another character’s.

However, if you look at John Grisham’s thriller A Time to Kill, you’ll find that the protagonist, Jake Brigance, is a defense attorney at the center of the major external conflict of the book. The central questions of the novel revolve around his court case, so Jake’s perspective is the most interesting for the reader.

The other key point I’ll emphasize here is that, in both books, the authors balance the external and internal narratives well, even as they prioritize one or the other. Both arcs are important in the story, making these works impactful on deeper levels for the reader.

Summary.

Okay, let’s review.

External conflict occurs when an external obstacle prevents a character from getting what they consciously want.
Internal conflict occurs when a character subconsciously needs something, but doesn’t yet know it.
The external conflict drives the external narrative, the plot. The internal conflict drives the internal narrative, the character’s arc.
Commercial fiction prioritizes the external narrative and uses the internal narrative to raise the stakes. Literary fiction prioritizes the internal narrative and uses the external narrative as the catalyst for the protagonist’s change.
In commercial fiction, the POV character is often the person at the center of the external conflict. In literary fiction, the POV character is often the person at the center of the internal conflict.

If you enjoyed this post and found it helpful, please share it!

Looking for a new thriller?

Check out my supernatural thriller, The Nowhere Game!

The Nowhere Game

Check out my Queen City Crime Series, available on Amazon in Kindle Ebook and print paperback.

No Hard Feelings

Mr. Moneybags

Mean Bones

Get more writing and crime fiction content!

A FREE ebook copy of No Hard Feelings and even more great content is yours, when you join my email newsletter. Subscribe below!