They Think

[Marisa]

Authors...
When writing about your character thinking. How do you format this? Do you italicize? Do you write the words she thinks/he thinks? Or do you just let it work into the writing hoping your readers understand it's a thought?

Reviewers...
As a reader, how do you prefer thoughts to be formatted?

Marisa

[Danielle]

I usually just work it into my writing in a way where it's clear that it is what the character is thinking. I don't switch point of views frequently (and if I do, it would be a separate chapter) so it should be obvious that these are the character's thoughts.

[D.A.]

I personally tend to write in third-person omniscient view, and as such I simply put my characters' thoughts in quotes and qualify them directly as thoughts, such as: "Maybe," he thinks, "it’s just the stress of it all."

If the thoughts are more generic than specific, I just state them without a direct quote, such as: Matt thought there must be more to it than just this.

Many authors do tend to use italics to represent thought. Personally - aside from emphasis - I use italics to indicate dreams, but not conscious thoughts.

[Marisa]

Thanks for the feedback. I tried just working into the writing, but I don't think I'm a good enough writer to do that as yet. I asked my editor tonight and she thinks, no pun, that I need to leave the she thinks/he thinks in because of how the sentence is currently structured. I'll have to think on this. LOL

[Cole]

The editor's advice is not uncommon. When the reader is engaged in the book, he or she will not consider 'he said' / 'she said' as boring or in poor style, they will just get used to it.

[Marisa]

Thanks Cole. I thought so, but I wanted to see what all of you thought. In some instances it has to be there, such as "Damn it", he thinks, as he picks up his coat. It doesn't work for me when it's like this, "Damn it!", he thinks.

Right?

[Amber]

To me, double quotes indicate dialogue, not thought. And using them for thought is an older style of prose formatting (19th and early 20th century).

Also, if a sentence makes it clear a character is thinking something—indirect thought—I don't format it because it's clear from context. But if it's direct thought, almost like mental dialogue, then I italicize it to help distinguish it from external dialogue.

[April]

Hi all,
So speaking from an editor's perspective, there are a number of ways you can attack this, as long as you're consistent that's the main thing.

The Chicago Manual of Style is the stylebook most publishers use for works of fiction. All Chicago says on the matter is, "Thought, imagined dialogue, and other interior discourse may be enclosed in quotation marks or not, according to the context or the writer’s preference."

Also, the AP Stylebook says, “So, is an unspoken thought always worthy of quotation marks? Writer’s choice on that.”

Each book is different and both the editor and designer should be consulted and take into consideration how much thought needs to be set apart from the text as well as any tense changes that occur (i.e. a past tense section that includes present tense thought).

Hope that helps!
-April