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Over and Out
Over and Out
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Emphasising thoughts
- Thread starter Steve Lenaghan
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"Freddy walked in the door of the convenience store and spotted Julie behind the counter. Golly, he thought, that's one mighty fine-lookin' gal."
Some authors use italics for quoted thoughts, others use quotation marks, but more commonly the thoughts are in plain text as in the example above. The convention of using italics or quotation marks has gone out of fashion."
"How to Write A Damn Good Mystery"--James N. Frey--St. Martin's Press, 2004(232)
Some authors use italics for quoted thoughts, others use quotation marks, but more commonly the thoughts are in plain text as in the example above. The convention of using italics or quotation marks has gone out of fashion."
"How to Write A Damn Good Mystery"--James N. Frey--St. Martin's Press, 2004(232)
I see nothing wrong with using italics but use them very sparingly because they're not the easiest things to read. Perhaps use them to emphasise a particular thought - and if you do use an italic you could drop the 'he thought' tag. You can also drop the tag if your POV is strong and the expressed thoughts are obviously thoughts.
Thoughts
Indirect and unimportant thoughts should not be set apart in any way. Thoughts important enough to stand out should always be italicized. Italics are for emnphasis, so unless a thought is important enough for emphais, it should be left alone. Quotation marks should be used only when grammatically correct, which means they're reserved for those times when a writer needs to make a word or a phrase understandable, such as:
With her narrow face thin nose, Margie was, he thought, the perfect example of what his grandfather used to call "pigeon-eyed."
Indirect and unimportant thoughts should not be set apart in any way. Thoughts important enough to stand out should always be italicized. Italics are for emnphasis, so unless a thought is important enough for emphais, it should be left alone. Quotation marks should be used only when grammatically correct, which means they're reserved for those times when a writer needs to make a word or a phrase understandable, such as:
With her narrow face thin nose, Margie was, he thought, the perfect example of what his grandfather used to call "pigeon-eyed."
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