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: Should I drop the quotation marks in a chapter that consists mostly on a character telling a story? The structure looks like this: Chapter 10 (...) And so Cath began telling
The structure looks like this:
Chapter 10
(...)
And so Cath began telling me her tale. Which turned out to be grimmer
than I'd expected.
Chapter 11
"I've been suffering from migraines ever since high school. I'm not
talking about those sissy tickling behind the eyes, but really strong
hammerings—so strong, in fact, they sometimes make me want to split my
head open and scoop out my brain...
(...)
"And that's when it came. It began as a tingle in my temples that
grew stronger and stronger, until it became a tightening pain. Like
the walls of my skull were closing in, squeezing my brain...
Chapter 11 consists mostly on Cath telling her story. The protagonist interrupts only occasionally:
I stared at Cath, astounded. "What happened then?"
(...)
I mulled this over. I'd never thought about nature that way.
Imperfection. Was that the reason things like cancer, allergies, and
other human afflictions existed? How about death?
Not sure whether I should remove the quotation marks or the parts where the protagonist interrupts.
What do author usually do in these cases? Which is more pleasant to the reader?
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You should keep the quotation marks. If you believe that they will be distracting or disorientating to the reader, then don't take my word for it, try it yourself with an example:
Look at the famous 'Heart of Darkness' by Conrad (the copyright has expired, so it is in the public domain and free to read). It consists almost exclusively of somebody on a boat telling a story, and after reading only a few pages the reader gets used to the quotation marks.
It doesn't matter if your book is 95% one person speaking. If your character is speaking aloud, and especially if you have a second person who interrupts even once a chapter, you must have punctuation indicating that someone is speaking.
Also, I very strongly recommend that you don't just present your story as a wall of 95% one person speaking aloud. If you want Cath to tell her story, make it from Cath's POV, and have her telling the reader instead. Then you can skip the punctuation, because she's writing to the audience, not speaking aloud.
If Cath is not your POV narrator, then break up her speech with stage business, action tags, and more interruptions from the other person.
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