So my WIP is in 3rd person, but I've been also using 1st person inner dialogue for my m.c. at certain instances. I've been putting it in italics (useful for my self-editing), but I've come across another issue: my m.c. has the ability to communicate with animals. This ability furthers as he uses it, so initially it's more sensory than phonetic. I've come to understand that italics for inner dialogue is considered "improper," though useful in my case. I can elimate the m.c.'s italics easily, but the animal communication is done mentally. I'm curious how to deal with this. I don't want to come off as gimmicky, but it seems that it would be wrong to put a mental dialogue in normal quotations. It would come off as the animal speaking and that belittles my world. They have not evolved the proper vocal chords. Should I just stick with italics for all of inner dialogue? Should I render only mental conversations, not thoughts, in italics? Or is there a way to circumvent all of this?
