Good morning ladies and gents. Just a quick question. When you are writing and the character has thoughts or talks to themselves in their head how do you write it?
We sat in silence. “Alex what should I do?” (The character is talking to herself in her head.
Cheers :D xx
Thank you all for your comments they are very helpful and thank you Paul for your comments in my up load. I will look at reducing those none important words. I'm working through it again working specifically I'm this problem. Thanks. :)
I read your question in a different manner to most other answers:
How do we format thought as opposed to speech.
I have used different ways but I vary the style depending on what seems best for the piece concerned - but of course generally keep to the same style within that work.
Firstly you can get a long way by just using thought in place of said!
These are the options I have used or considered
1) Indirect Thought
I wonder if this is best, he thought. (This form overlaps with reported speech,)
This is probably the most common method I think. There's more leeway in not quoting thoughts that would have to be quoted if it were speech.
2) Direct Thought - or a silent monologue
"I wonder if this is best" he thought.
Seems good where a character is effectively talking to themselves and it's not confusable with regular dialogue.
3) But for some longer passages - or for to emphasise the difference between this and real dialogue I might use Italic or angle quotes to suggest a more ethereal musing.
IMHO the italic form can be used for direct or indirect thought.
"Get out of here!" she said.
"I'm going" he replied as he left.
He thought about their argument the whole way home.
Italic also works well with what I suppose we should call Indirect Thought
Damn Frances. How dare she treat HIM like this. He'd like to slap her silly face and teach her a lesson.
Hope my examples make sense!
Paul
I read your question in a different manner to most other answers:
How do we format thought as opposed to speech.
I have used different ways but I vary the style depending on what seems best for the piece concerned - but of course generally keep to the same style within that work.
Firstly you can get a long way by just using thought in place of said!
These are the options I have used or considered
1) Indirect Thought
I wonder if this is best, he thought. (This form overlaps with reported speech,)
This is probably the most common method I think. There's more leeway in not quoting thoughts that would have to be quoted if it were speech.
2) Direct Thought - or a silent monologue
"I wonder if this is best" he thought.
Seems good where a character is effectively talking to themselves and it's not confusable with regular dialogue.
3) But for some longer passages - or for to emphasise the difference between this and real dialogue I might use Italic or angle quotes to suggest a more ethereal musing.
IMHO the italic form can be used for direct or indirect thought.
"Get out of here!" she said.
"I'm going" he replied as he left.
He thought about their argument the whole way home.
Italic also works well with what I suppose we should call Indirect Thought
Damn Frances. How dare she treat HIM like this. He'd like to slap her silly face and teach her a lesson.
Hope my examples make sense!
Paul