Thoughts in Writing

[Pup in Fluff]

Recently my friend and I were having a conversation as I was editing his story. We were talking about thoughts in writing. hen I write, I italicize the text when the person is thinking. My friend puts "quotation marks" around it and I have read some books where they have 'apostrophies' around the thoughts. I want to know if there is a "correct" way to do character thoughts or if it's just a matter of opinion and what your opinion on the matter is.  

[Pup in Fluff]

Ever_lasting_Flame

I also have read books that have used one or the other. I do not believe that there is a right or wrong way to define a character's thoughts when writing.
Personally, I use italics because of the font and size that I type in. I know some people who bold or even use a differenet font to seperate thought from everything else

I was talking to someone who is a professional writer and he said not to use italics. He told me that editors hate it when you use any font modifiers (Bold, italic, underline, color) and they'll change it. He also said that the editor might modify the font but they hate it when you do it...he wasn't sure why.  

[Endearing Viv]

I also italicize. Personally, I think doing anything else would be super confusing. I mean, why put apostrophes or quotation marks? Quotation marks signify dialogue, and apostrophes just... don't make sense... razz

Yes, all editors do hate font modifiers. I actually know this from experience... ninja

Anyway, the best thing to do in the case of editors is to put /'s at the beginning and ending of thoughts. For example:

/Why would he?/ she contemplated mentally, chewing on the tip of her pen, looking absentmindedly straight at the boy diagonal to her.

That is the most common thing people do if such a thing as font modifiers aren't around. So that'd be the best to do. cool  

[hapahaole]

Hmm, why don't editors like font modifiers? Is it because of a computer program they use maybe? And are you talking about magazine editors or book editors? or is it both?

I prefer using italics, but I don't think it matters as long as the reader can figgure out what you're doing.  

[calviness]

I actually go with the whole Joycean bit - a lot of my stories have no markers for conversation or thoughts. i dunno, it seems pretentious to raise a characters thoughts to italics or whatnot.  

[Starlit-Chan]

I tend to use ' for thoughts

'I want some cake' She thought to herself....  

[Isis375]

I tend to use italics also.

However, if I add 'she thought' or 'he thought' after every thought in a story, I leave it by itself. Such as...

I wonder how I'm supposed to emphasize a thought, she thought to herself.