Hi guys, this may seem like a strange one but if a character was to talk to himself or have a thought to himself would you still use speech marks? Thanks in advance guys
I've seen it a bunch of ways. "I can't believe it," he thought. I can't believe it, he thought. I can't believe it. Personally, I don't think you should use quotes for anything silent other than reading a sign.
Talk to himself externally? Quotation marks. Think to himself? You can use italics, or you can phrase it as in @John Calligan's second example, or you could rework it to read, "He couldn't believe it" rather than a direct quote. I've definitely seen quotation marks used for internal monologue, but I personally wouldn't. I only use them for speech itself.
Yeah, I really like the way you brought up. The street was empty. All the shops were closed. He couldn't believe it.
Yeah, I've seen some annoyance about using italics for thoughts -- I believe there's a thread about it around here someplace, but I've seen it elsewhere too -- so I've gotten in the habit of just including thoughts directly in the narrative as much as possible. I like it better, actually. I think it makes you feels closer to the narrator and makes things more seamless.
My first novel's first draft, I largely told myself the story through italicized thoughts. I periodically filled half a page with it, and had almost no internal reaction to scene or action built into the prose. Pretty savage. I think it took me two weeks to sit there and read it. I imagine people do move away from it as they get better at integrating description, character, and prose without info-dumping, but I still think there is a place for it.
Thanks for the idea, i like the idea of the use of italics instead of quotations. Definetly going to go for that. Cheers
Thanks for the inut, the only reason i ask this question is that my main character is at the moment spending a of time on his own and so has a lot of time to mull his thoughts over.
Still no need to tag or attribute them though. You can usually use a POV and tense that let you just make them part of the narrative, while still making it clear that they’re coming from his head.
The hee haw goes on about italics for thoughts. You can use them or not, as you wish. But what I would not recommend is using quotation marks for thoughts. Even if your piece contains no actual dialogue, quote marks for thoughts would still be confusing. People are conditioned to see quotation marks as indicating actual speech. I'd recommend using one of the other methods of conveying direct thoughts instead.
If they spend a lot of time on their own and don't want them actually voicing it out loud, what about doing it as a journal entry/ text / letter /Facebook or Twitter post? Then the reader knows how they feel and might allow you to use a different writing technique.
I use speech marks for speech but not for thoughts , so yes if hes muttering to himself (or if the tags suggest any kind of speech) no if its thought tags or no tags at all.
'Doh, burger, tits and burger,' thought @Moose. His lips trembled through the exertion, and he explored a second trash can, found a... [From Moose In America, Methuen Publishers].
Mat was generally funny, Moose thought. Sometimes very funny, sometimes may be tried a bit to hard. Then he reread the bit about the cat getting run over . "Fecking idiot," Moose mumbled. Somethings just ain't meant for humour.