Comments on: What is Free Indirect Discourse? Writing the “Intimate 3rd Person”

By: Review: Cooler Than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard – cool lima bean

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 18:13:29 +0000

[…] are dominated by pages and pages of dialogue with very little action. Leonard was a master of free indirect discourse, which is a narrative technique in which the author injects a character’s thoughts or […]

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 04:06:09 +0000

Can you make slip FIS into the narration of an omnisicient narrator–and if so, to what extent. Thx.

By: Maureen Armstrong

Maureen Armstrong — Thu, 09 May 2024 23:14:08 +0000

I’m writing a series and felt this diversion to explain past events. Your article helps to understand my principles of back story. Thanks.

By: Sean Glatch

Sean Glatch — Thu, 09 May 2024 17:58:48 +0000

In reply to Sanjeev Dhokte. I'm happy this helps you, Sanjeev!

By: Sanjeev Dhokte

Sanjeev Dhokte — Thu, 09 May 2024 17:56:15 +0000

Wonderful article!! For certain situations, writing dialogues does seem bothersome and therefore kills the desire to write. This opens up an entirely different perspective that I wasnt aware of (cosnciously at least). Thank you

By: Sean Glatch

Sean Glatch — Thu, 09 May 2024 16:00:27 +0000

In reply to Vicki L Raab. I'm so glad this article has inspired you, Vicki. Happy writing!

By: Vicki L Raab

Vicki L Raab — Thu, 09 May 2024 15:27:29 +0000

During covid I did a lot of writing, short stories and part of a novel. Sent a story in was rejected and couldn’t figure out what needed changing. Then life opened up and all that writing has sat untouched even though I think often of it with the revisions I could make. This article has given me back the urge to get going again.
Thank you.

By: Sean Glatch

Sean Glatch — Wed, 08 May 2024 15:08:21 +0000

In reply to Denna Weber.

Hi Denna,

I’m glad you enjoyed this! And that’s nothing to be embarrassed about—I didn’t learn about F.I.D. until my final year of undergrad, and it’s definitely a term that gets thrown around primarily in MFA programs. I hope the techniques here will be useful for your fiction writing!

Sean

By: Denna Weber

Denna Weber — Tue, 07 May 2024 22:29:38 +0000

I really enjoyed this article. Quite candidly, I’d not thought of the differences in free indirect, stream of consciousness, free direct, etc. Third person was third person, and that was that. To my embarassment, I see now things are not so simple here.
As Mary gulped down the grape slurpee, she wondered if anyone she knew was learning her secret –that she’d rather be her usual sloppy and ravenous country bumpkin in Holley dungarees than sit stiffly in a ruffled pinafore with Mrs. Wednesday and Beth Saturday and sip that slurpee with a silver spoon in her mouth for an hour.