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Q&A How to format multiple inner voices, differentiating the text from dialogue? and omnipresent inner voice

The most important thing you need to establish is a consistency of approach. Decide on a way to introduce a voice, reinforce it a couple of times and then get on with writing. The important part he...

posted 9y ago by Michael B‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:20:27Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17648
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Michael B‭ · 2019-12-08T04:20:27Z (over 4 years ago)
The most important thing you need to establish is a consistency of approach. Decide on a way to introduce a voice, reinforce it a couple of times and then get on with writing. The important part here is showing the reader what you're conveying, rather than blindly sticking to prescribed style. (if every writer always stuck to the prescribed style, there would be considerably less great literature)

Logically, you need to have some way to convey to the reader that the voice has started and stopped (and you need to do that in a way that doesn't stand out, and offend the eyes!) The reader needs to be able to instantly recognise who is saying what, at which point it will become an unconscious task and the reader will hear a different voice as they read.

So for each voice you wish to convey have a different way to contain it, and maybe a different style to what is said. So the internal voice could be a more timid questioning language, while the supernatural character could be much more forceful and direct in the language.

.\> So maybe for the supernatural character you could put them on a new line. Perhaps start that line with a space (or some other character '\>' for instance)

For mid-dialogue thoughts, 'a single quote would sufficiently distinguish the thought from the rest of the sentence' you could even introduce multiple inner thoughts with different characters ...ellipsis would work too, for instance... all on the same line. @@though you probably want to keep it subtle, so as not to offend the readers eyes@@

The important part to remember is that good writers know how, and when, to bend - and occasionally break - the rules of grammar in order to convey the story they want to tell.

Make language work for the story you're telling, rather than allowing yourself to be held hostage by it.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-06-09T09:20:54Z (almost 9 years ago)
Original score: 1