Too Much Chatter:Different Styles of Dialogue in Fiction

There’s no better place to break writing rules than fiction. But, you don’t want your experimenting or your style to take away from the story itself—just enhance it. Your stylistic choices (no matter how unique or fun) should never take your readers out of the story.

So, before you either break all the rules or never break a single one, it’s best to have an idea of what they are and how they can influence your story.

While dialogue and narration styles and forms are complex and always adapting, they can usually be fit into three main categories. 

1. Direct Discourse

2. Indirect Discourse

3. Free Indirect Discourse (Stream of Consciousness)

The main thing to keep in mind when writing any sort of dialogue is ‘how does it support the story and keep readers engaged?’ You want to keep readers in the story, for them to forget they’re even reading and keep the plot moving forward.

Direct Discourse

Direct Discourse (DD) is the most common form, and the one you are likely to be most familiar with. The basic ‘he said/she said’:

“Hello, Harry.” Mary said in greeting.

“Mary. How are you?” Harry nodded.

DD is speech, which generally follows certain grammatical rules, and is written out to represent speech as it would occur in reality. There is a lot you can do here. There are many areas you can improve on and habits that might be holding you back, from speech tags to dialogue supporting description, but that deserves its own post. 

Indirect Discourse

Indirect Discourse (ID) is as its name, indirect. It is often described as ‘reporting’. ID is when a narrator tells the reader what was said, including feelings and actions, sometimes even imputing their own perspectives.

Mary was walking down the main street, for once she seemed to be in quite a pleasant mood. She saw Harry coming down the opposite way and called out a greeting, which Harry returned with a nod. They paused and discussed the weather for a moment, before farewelling, and each continuing on their way. Mary wasn’t usually one for small talk, but hoped to run into Harry again soon.

It creates distance between the characters and the reader, which can make it a good option for tackling heavier scenes. It can also be a good way to condense bulky or ‘info dumping’ dialogue in order to maintain the pacing of the narrative. There is no direct speech in the above example, like in DD, but readers can understand that Mary and Harry had a conversation and what it was about. It saves space, cuts out unnecessary scenes, and improves pacing.

Free Indirect Discourse

Free Indirect Discourse (FID)—sometimes referred to as stream of consciousness—can be a blend of spoken dialogue and thought. It is hearing the characters first person voice through the narrator’s third person perspective. You might read dialogue, and the thoughts of the character together with the commentaries of the narrator, or more accurately, the narrator describing through the voice and perspective of the character. It is often, though not always, ‘free’ of traditional speech punctuation.

Mary walked down the street wondering who she might see; she didn’t want to bump into Susan. Susan was always giving her opinion as fact, or supplying backhanded compliments. No one here wanted to bump into her. Really, who did she think she was? Susan would no doubt tell Mary that her dress was such a nice colour, and did you pick it yourself dear? Mary shook her head, annoyed all over again. She looked up to see Harry coming down the opposite way, he looked to be a bit lost, was that a newspaper he had sticking out of his pocket? Hello, Harry she called, not intending to stop. But He replied, Mary, how are you? Nodding and stopping beside her, how’s this weather been treating you? And is your garden managing without the rain? She didn’t want to stop and only replied with not bad and not bad, but soon found herself enjoying the conversation—I’ve never had trouble with my lavender she told him, feeling quite proud of her green thumbs. 

Direct thought, when written in a third person perspective, is often separated and italicised to make them clear to readers.

Who did she think she was? And He looked a bit lost, thought Mary, was that a newspaper sticking out of his pocket?

Whereas FID does away with all that, the narrator merely steps straight into the characters perspective and mind. This can help bring readers closer to characters, while staying in a third person perspective. Instead of a clear divide between narrator and character, this is a way to invite readers further into the perspective of the characters.

Summary

Most of the time, the best practice, or way to ‘break the rules’,  is to blend these styles as they suit and improve your narrative. You might not want a full novel in the FID style, but only using DD can be quite limiting.  Most likely you are already using these styles, and maybe just didn’t have a name for them.

My advice is that consistency is key. You don’t want a manuscript of solely DD, with one long passage FID that just feels out of place, and could pull readers out of the story. The easiest technique (which is what you’re probably already using in one way or another) is to regularly blend DD and ID.

Mary was walking down the street in a pleasant mood. She saw Harry coming down the street and called out a greeting.

“Hello, Harry.”

“Mary. How are you?” Harry nodded in reply.

They paused for a moment and briefly discussed the weather. He asked after her garden and she after his shop. They parted amicably and waved goodbye.

There is DD on the page as speech, but the narrator tells you what else they talked about before parting, rather than having it all on the page as speech.

If you’re feeling confident and want to branch out more, consider how you can bring FID into your writing. Maybe consider doing away with the basic italicised he thought’s and she wondered’s. FID alongside DD can give your protagonist a stronger and more unique voice.

Mary was walking down the street, in quite a pleasant mood. Ugh, was that Harry? How could she avoid him? Cross the street maybe—before he got too close?

“Mary, how are you?” Well, too late. 

“Hello, Harry,” Mary paused and smiled politely.

“How’s your garden?”

“Not bad,” When would be an acceptable time to excuse herself?

Harry nodded, “this weather not bothering you?”

Now that you have an idea of the different styles and the different ways they can influence your writing, go and read, edit your manuscripts or start writing them and see where these ideas take you.

References

To see what I read for this post or for some further reading, check out these:

The Living Handbook Of Narratology

https://www-archiv.fdm.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/contents.html

Dialogue #1: Three Core Forms―#AuthorToolboxBlogHop

https://wordsliketrees.wordpress.com/2019/08/18/dialogue-threeforms/

Do Your Characters Talk too Much? When to Use Indirect Dialogue

https://annerallen.com/2018/02/indirect-dialogue/

What is Free Indirect Discourse? || Definition & Examples

https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-free-indirect-discourse

Writing Prompts #1

Don’t want to work on the manuscript? Don’t have a manuscript? Use these prompts to keep your writing skills sharp. Flesh out ideas and characters, try a new style, and just get that one idea that may never be a full manuscript down on paper.

Theme: Character relationships.

Write a scene where character A reveals an embarrassing secret about themselves to character B, who already knew it.

(A great way to flesh out relationship dynamics.)

Describe the first time character B saw character A.

(A great exercise to write from an alternative character’s perspective if you’re writing in first person or limited third person.)

Write a dialogue-heavy scene where character B is trying to break some bad or sad news to Character A, but character A is in a great mood—something really good just happened to them.

(Another great way to flesh out character dynamics, but also to explore how your characters deal with and express their emotions.)

Write a scene from character C’s perspective as they watch Characters A and B interact, noticing for the first time the chemistry the two have.

(A great way to explore your main romance/relationship from an outside perspective.)

Share your excerpts in the comments, or keep them for yourself!