There are some who think it's redundant to add the 'he thought' tag if you've already put the thought in italics. Does anyone know of any "Authority's" view on this?
That could be confusing. In that case, I'd use a second format to indicate other people's thoughts... probably underline.
Anyway, just looking for thoughts: should I continue to italicize his internal thoughts, or would you be comfortable if I simply left them the same as the rest of the text?
In the extremely unlikely event the work gets published, how would the publisher show that? I haven't seen underlining in any books I've read, have you?
Not to derail, but I have another question in the same vein. I have a character who hears other people's thoughts and I italicize them. Then she also has internal thoughts about stuff, which I also italicize. Can anyone suggest another way to handle this? I'm afraid I'm going to confuse the reader.
I have a character who hears other people's thoughts and I italicize them. Then she also has internal thoughts about stuff, which I also italicize. Can anyone suggest another way to handle this? I'm afraid I'm going to confuse the reader.
It's all about clarity and consistency
In first person, there's no need to italicize (because it's first person!) unless there's ambiguity, or you want to be clear that it's some kind of immediate thoughts:
In third person, the general rule is that a direct thought should be italics to be set apart from the narrative:
She walked through the door. She was radiant. Wow, I can just pee my pants how gorgeous she is. Then I caught myself thinking impure thoughts about her.
If it's indirect thought, however, there's no need for italics:
She walked through the door. She was radiant. Wow, I can just pee my pants how gorgeous she is, he thought. Then he caught himself thinking impure thoughts about her.
She walked through the door. She was radiant. Wow, he could just pee his pants how gorgeous she was. Then he caught himself thinking impure thoughts about her.
Not to derail, but I have another question in the same vein. I have a character who hears other people's thoughts and I italicize them. Then she also has internal thoughts about stuff, which I also italicize. Can anyone suggest another way to handle this? I'm afraid I'm going to confuse the reader.
Not to derail, but I have another question in the same vein. I have a character who hears other people's thoughts and I italicize them. Then she also has internal thoughts about stuff, which I also italicize. Can anyone suggest another way to handle this? I'm afraid I'm going to confuse the reader.
There are some who think it's redundant to add the 'he thought' tag if you've already put the thought in italics. Does anyone know of any "Authority's" view on this?
My editor told me to either a) italicize, but without any phrase like 'he thought to himself', or b) use single quotes without italics, and 'he thought to himself' is OK. I mostly use the first method, but only for very short thoughts. I don't think in great long paragraphs to myself all the time and find it very unrealistic to read. I present my character's internal states as flashes of emotion or sensation, with a short thought fragment to spell it out if needed.
Not to derail, but I have another question in the same vein. I have a character who hears other people's thoughts and I italicize them. Then she also has internal thoughts about stuff, which I also italicize. Can anyone suggest another way to handle this? I'm afraid I'm going to confuse the reader.
I don't like italicized thoughts. Too distracting. And it feels old fashioned now days. I prefer smooth, well-written interior monologue.
I can't point to an 'authority' (but then I don't trust the 'authorities' on writing style...they make up rules that are crap) but I can say that this is something that makes sense for a deep third person. After all, who else is going to be thinking it?
If you are writing something more omniscient, then I supposed the thought tags might be needed.