I've been wondering about this for a while. How do you accurately punctuate/portray characters thoughts? Quotation marks? Italics? Nothing? Do we keep or leave the tags? Do we use the same rules as speech? Or do we just try to avoid it by wording it differently? Thanks, Sam
can be as on the nose as adding 'he thought/wondered/mused/etc.'... or simply by making it clear with your wording that it's a thought... never, since those are for spoken dialog only... while this is often done, good writers don't need to resort to fancy fontery to let readers know when someone is thinking... and using italics for thoughts is annoying to many readers [including this one] and writers who do are not well thought of by many editors [including this one]... yes! whichever works/reads best... meaning what?... avoid what?... differently from what?
Thanks. Regarding the last point, that came about by reading a post on a website: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1465292-How-to-write-Thoughts-of-a-Character . They say to avoid it completely. But you've answered my question, so I'm happy
John turned the corner and found himself staring into the void of a shotgun barrel. Well, shit. John slowly raised his hands and placed them behind his head. "You got me," he smiled. Just play along, he thought, still smiling. You can take this guy if you're careful. "Keep smiling, buddy," the man on the other end of the barrel said, "Down on your knees. Slowly." What a putz. John sank to his knees, his eyes never leaving that gun.
Really? In what universe? Most of the time the thoughts of the POV character can just be inserted into the narrative:
not in any universe i've been to, corgz... however, one might say they're used universally in this one by lazy writers and/or those who can't write well enough to let their readers know any other way, when a character is thinking...
They also tell you not to end a sentence with a preposition. Writing rules for school are not the same as writing guidelines for fiction. If you read books, like I'm sure you do, you'll notice quite a lot of books where the thoughts are not italicized. So... are they wrong?
Seconded. Even as you make your way through school, you find out that stuff you learnt in early years is redundant after a while and you have to learn new things.
Not just redundant, sometimes plain wrong, old-fashioned, or limited in application. If you write fiction, don't write fiction for your grammar teacher, or your writing will become formal and stilted.
Then gaain, my bth grade teacher made me rewrite a story because mine was like this. Carl leaned over to maria. "Are you ready to go?" he whispered. "Yes" "Alright, the cars out the front.." She told me i had to write like this- Carl leaned over to maria. "Are you ready to go?" he said. "Yes" he said. "Alright, the cars out the front.." He said
Second graders do not do their exams or homework as computer-written submissions, so how are they supposed to show italics in their handwriting? I don't know how things have changed at uni in recent years, but the last I heard, final exams are still handwritten even if the assignments are not. At the university where I teach, we certainly don't teach this, and exams are hand written. I was never taught this when I learnt formatting for submissions.
Actually, when the school year starts in two weeks, the school is trying to compeltely abolish handwriting, other then spellign tests and stuff... but yeah, we are focusing on computers instead
I just did this as an example in another post! *blush* Wow, well I learnt something new today! Mental note made.
I'm using first person narrative and it helps me to write the character's thoughts in italics - distinguishing them from the action and being able to build the character's personality - and bearing in mind how thoughts emerge as a 'stream of consciousness'.
If it helps you to write that way, that's fine. It's formatting manuscripts to send to publishers that we're concerned about.
You are free to use italics for thoughts as much as you want to, people are just trying to tell you what is considered better in writing. Then you can choose if listening to them or your teacher, of course. As with every piece of advice you can always choose if to take them or not.
corgz... what school?... where?... and when? and how did 7 year olds even know what italics are, much less how to use them?... did they not teach handwriting in your second grade?... did everyone in your school only use computers?... i have to think you've made this and that 'universal' claim up, to try to defend your own use of italics for thought...
I figured that italics, while not exactly the most accepted, weren't the most frowned-on element, but I can see what people like mammamaia and AmsterdamAssassin (sorry if I misspelled either name) see. It just makes the writing seem more sloppy, in my opinion, but it's completely up to the writer, I suppose. If I'm not mistaken, Tolkein had a nasty habit of putting thoughts in quotes. Very confusing at times, I'd say. Whatever works for a writer is fine, but when it comes to what matters to the publisher, that's a whole different story in itself.
I think italics are the most obvious way of showing a characters thoughts. Then again, if you're writing in first person you may not have to because the reader will immediately know. If you're writing in third person, you can do this too, depending on the way you do it. For example: Gary stood by John's window, his torso turned slightly so that his badge sparkled in the light. "Well, I'll let you off this time. Just don't do it again, alright?" he raised an eyebrow, as if waiting for John to challenge him. Jerk. "Yes, officer" John hated calling him officer. As you probably guessed, the word 'jerk' was the thought running through John's mind but it could also be put in italics to make it a little more obvious. It depends on what you're comfortable with.
Regarding using italics for thoughts, I have a question: What if the narrative wants to make a difference between current time and past time. Example: --- She headed for the dressing room, overwhelmed, having to try on all those dresses. The store assistant had told her that they would all be altered for her size, but looking at herself in the mirror, she looked ridiculous in the first two she tried. She also felt lonely. “If Mom were here, she would find the way to encourage me. I understand she is doing something very important, but I’d like so much to have her here with me.” Soon she picked herself up and continued trying on dresses. --- I know I could avoid the quotes by putting it all in the past tense (She felt lonely. She thought that if her mom had been there, she would have...") but I want to make it present because it sound more powerful to me. Ideas?
I'd suggest getting rid of the quotes, and just adding "she thought" in there. As I was reading this, I half saw her talking to herself, or nobody in particular. Make the changes, and I know that she's just thinking to herself about her mother.
