punctuation within thoughts

Vbeacher

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I am uncertain about how to punctuate someone's thoughts, especially with regard to question marks and exclamation points.

Obviously if within quotes, it's obvious.

"I don't believe this!" she said.

But what about:

I don't believe this, she thought!

I want to put an exclamation mark after thought, but don't know if it's appropriate.
 
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Marlys

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If you need to give direct thoughts, the standard is to italicize them. So your example would read:

I don't believe this! she thought.

But if you're in close third, this can be expressed very simply without the internal dialogue tag:

She did not believe this.
 

Chase

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All of these are correctly punctuated styles to express thoughts:

"I don't believe this!" she thought.
"How can I believe him?" she thought.

I don't believe this! she thought.
How can I believe him? she thought.

I don't believe this! she thought.
How can I believe him? she thought.

Italics for thoughts are popular at this time, but your writing style is up to you.
 

Roxxsmom

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I am uncertain about how to punctuate someone's thoughts, especially with regard to question marks and exclamation points.

Obviously if within quotes, it's obvious.

"I don't believe this!" she said.

But what about:

I don't believe this, she thought!

I want to put an exclamation mark after thought, but don't know if it's appropriate.

You could use the exclamation mark if you're treating thoughts as internal dialog. Some writers use italics in this situation to emphasize that it's a thought and not simple narrative. This technique allows you to omit the tag as well.

So you could write:

I don't believe this! she thought.

I don't believe this! she thought.

I don't believe this!


You can also include the thought simply as deeper narrative without treating it as internal dialog at all.

Unbelievable!

or

What the hell?

or

She had to be dreaming.


Hard to say which would be the best approach without seeing the overall style, voice and pov of your story.