Why so? I can understand not wanting to use them in your own writing, but I legitimately don't understand how they could annoy you enough that you would put down the book.
Who would have thought people would insult writers who choose to use italicized thought. That amplifies the emotional response in any debate.
Here are some examples from the thread of assertions using italics for thoughts means you lack skill: The assertion of poor skill was never supported with evidence, and neither was the claim publishers would reject a manuscript out of hand if it had italicized thoughts. In addition, reputable style guides were cited as sources suggesting, if not recommending, italicized thought. It's tiring to have your writing style choices demeaned as unskilled when there is no evidence supporting that claim.
So how does that reflect this comment of yours: What leads you to claim that it takes skill and practice not to use italicized thought?
I try to understand people. Some people are more invested in things never changing. What one learns initially to be correct remains correct even as the world moves on. It can be a hard call deciding which rules are vying to be broken. There are those on this forum that suggest any and every rule can be broken, which may be true but only under limited circumstances. That can be just as erroneous as failing to recognize times change and that includes changing language and grammar conventions. But it's in the nature of some people to have issues with change. In this case it's pretty clear the convention has become commonplace and will likely be officially recognized, even by the CMoS, sometime in the near future. Italicized thoughts are too commonly used to dismiss the convention as wrong or not going to last.
The books I read did not use italics, some put 'he/she thought' afterwards, for some it was obvious from the language used and it being in first-person.
Many of the books I've read use italics for thoughts. I don't see why some people are discouraging its use. I think it makes sense to use it so that the narrator that is narrating from the character's perspective doesn't get confused with the thoughts that come directly from the character. Stephen King uses it rather extensively. Brent Weeks too. Those are the one's I've been readin lately so others don't come to mind right now... There are thoughts that are represented as dialogues, but those are usually dialogues the characater is remembering or imagining or something of the sort, and are usually in the middle of a train of thought being described by the narrator. I've also seen italics used for parts of the story that are memories.
Giving my two cents here but I have gone back and forth and I have come to realize that I prefer thoughts without italics. As someone else mentioned, if you frame the thought properly and in context it should be clear that it is a thought. Italics should be used for emphasis. For example, if something happens to your character and you want them to express sort of a dry annoyance over some event (like you forgot to do something but its not that important), you could have: Crap. But, if you wanted to express more urgency, like your character forgot to pick up their kid from school you could do the following: Crap!
I can see consistency problems in that, though. On one hand the reader might not perceive the italics as emphasis (I wouldn't, at least not on just one word - I would in this case: "...the inner voice that said he was coming for you - or I might, after being distracted with getting the context), on the other hand, stuff like this could happen: Snap! (*) Snap. (**) Reader goes "wtf?" * Character is distressed ** One of the steps on the staircase snapped (And it could very well be the other way around)
Some people don't. See Faulkner or Cormac McCarthy. It ends up being a stylistic choice, though the use of quotation marks is vastly in the majority. Italics for thoughts is similarly merely a stylistic choice, though not nearly so universal as the example above. They can be and are used by very good writers, and there are plenty of very good writers that avoid them. It is purely a stylistics choice - one that will meet with varying personal preferences among readers and writers. It is no indicator of quality, ability to write, or being "correct." Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise should be ignored on this subject. If it matters, I do not use italics for thoughts.
I some people might not understand what "thought" we are talking about here. And it's hard to blame them considering the sisyphean nature of this thread. The thoughts that get italicized are specifically internal monologue. When the character says something to himself or someone else without giving it voice. e.g. from New York Times bestseller John Dies at the End
I'm able to make a choice that works for me without defensively or irrationally holding forth that my choice is the only correct one
The screen seemed to emit a pulsating, rhythmic, near mocking glare at him. 'Not this again.' he thought.
That's the kind of thought that may create confusion with dialogue, kinda forcing the reader to pay more attention to the tags. "Not this again," he thought. "Yes. This again," the brat yelled, reading his mind. I'd simply remove the quotes (in these cases I'm divided about italics, though I've seen it used). Not this again, he thought. "Yes. This again," the brat yelled, reading his mind. But that's my preference, it's likely that there's other solutions. I just tend to stick with what I've seen that worked best with me as a reader.
It wasn't meant to be an example so much as a comment in the third person regarding this saga of a thread. As @Jack Asher mentioned above, I'm suggesting that italics work as a stylistic choice to denote internal monologue. It's something I'm experimenting with in my WIP.
In this case is would correctly be: Not this again. "Yes. This again," the brat yelled, reading his mind. The reader know that the italic text is interior monologue, there's no reason to tag it.
And here we are on page 34 of a thread that should never have gotten beyond page one... Why in the name of God Almighty is this thread, about such a trivial topic, so infinitely popular? No, wait! Please! Don't answer that - it'll just make this batshit madness of a thread even longer!
*opens mouth* ... I wasn't going to answer it, not now. No, I thought, I really would not rather annoy my squirrel friend. I think I know how to write thoughts for my characters. I got up and left the computer to do something else.
It's my understanding the thread was stickied because new threads of the same topic kept popping up. New people join the discussion. I fail to see the problem with the thread going on and on.
When new people join the discussion, do they bring important new points? New insights? New ideas? Or do they just repeat what's been said in the previous 33 pages of brain-numbing disco music that's already appeared in this thread? I'm not speaking as a mod. This is just my personal opinion. But from where I sit, there just isn't this much to say on this topic! Put a pair of glasses on. Use a telescope. Or a microscope. Wipe the mud from your screen. Do whatever you have to do to see the problem. Trust me, it's there. Gaah. My apologies. It's just that this thread irks me more than any other in the entire forum and it just won't go away.
