Writing Blog Number 2

20240226 Depicting Thoughts In Writing

Depicting Thoughts In Writing

So, your characters are thinking things. These things are like the character is talking to themselves inside their own mind.

Now, first, in a first person PoV story, this is difficult to pull off as the whole story is the character talking to themselves as well as the reader. However, it may become necessary to use this. On the other hand, showing the real thoughts of a character in a 3rd person PoV story is where this can almost be vital.

This is, of course, based on my experiences in trad publishing. In self-publishing it might help to follow this because of reader expectation.

Nearly all publishers I have dealt with use italics as thought identifiers. This has become expected by readers, and so is what is most often used.

It also differentiates from actual, spoken words. e.g.:

"I hate you!" Jane screamed at John. I wish I could tell you how I really felt, she added in her own mind.

Please note: I know that the construction of the sentence is clunky and awful and "in her own mind" is almost redundant, but this is me playing Captain Obvious.

Having said that, quite a few publishers in South East Asia prefer underlining as they also accept stories not in the Latin character set, so if you're not sure about a publisher, shoot them an e-mail.

But every publisher I've dealt with - and when I have worked as a reader or editor - italics are what I have found is the most preferred method. In this case, all the rules of direct speech apply... except, of course, the use of quotation marks. See "20240125 Direct Speech"  for some of those rules.

Having said that, if you read the classics, thoughts will be represented thus:

"I hate you!" Jane screamed at John. I wish I could tell you how I really felt -- she added in her own mind.

Please note: the double hyphen there is an em-dash —.

And some will even use parentheses:

"I hate you!" Jane screamed at John. (I wish I could tell you how I really felt, she added in her own mind.)

Those last two are not so common today, and I'd say unless you read otherwise on a publisher's guidelines, use italics.

My God, the writer thought, looking at his completed work, I think I've done it!