Thoughts without italic

[HotCosmo]

Hey, I'm writing a kind of first-person story where writing thoughts is quite important because the main character is psychic. The problem is that, as I'm writing a story game, italics are not an option. The options I found on the internet are normal quotation marks with the appropriate tag:
"Oh, he's really cute," she thought.
And the other one is using the simple marks:
'Oh, he's really cute,' she thought.
I also thought that I could use guillemets:
<<Oh, he's really cute,>> she thought.
In your opinion, which is best? I like the second and the third ones because they differentiate inner dialogue and external dialogue, but I don't know. In case of using the second or third type, should I write an explanation at the start of the game to make this special use of quotation clear?

 

[EmilyMiller]

If I use anything for internal thoughts, it’s generally single quotes. And I tend to add, I thought to myself, or I wondered as tags as well.

 

[TheLobster]

Nothing. The ‘she thought’ tag is already sufficient indication.

 

[StillStunned]

I wouldn't expect readers to notice the difference between single and double quotation marks. Personally, if I couldn't use italics, I'd forego any kind of punctuation to mark internal thoughts and just use plain text. For things like telepathy (you mention the character being psychic) I might be tempted to use guillemets.

 

[HotCosmo]

I wouldn't expect readers to notice the difference between single and double quotation marks. Personally, if I couldn't use italics, I'd forego any kind of punctuation to mark internal thoughts and just use plain text. For things like telepathy (you mention the character being psychic) I might be tempted to use guillemets.

Guillemets are more common in Spanish (technically the correct way to quote), but I didn't know if it would be confusing in English. For that I was thinking of making a little explanation at the start of the story

 

[PennyThompson]

I did some internal thoughts in my first series, and tagged them with italics... But as I've gotten a little more confident in my writing, I think I've mostly moved away from doing inner monologue thought quotes.

If a character is super internally focused, I would think about writing the story in First-Person and making the character's thoughts the narrator.

I thought he was cute, which was a little strange as he wasn't the kind of guy I normally went for.

If the story is in Third-Person and there are just a few moments like this, I would just write it narration-style.

She found him strangely cute.

Or something like that. But I think you want to be careful about how many heads you get into, if you're hearing every character's thoughts all the time, I think the Third Person perspective can get muddy!

 

[SmilingLez]

If you are developing an interactive story game, you could always use parentheses for thoughts. This keeps the thoughts separate in the reader's mind. I've seen this technique used in quite a few cyoa games

 

[NuclearFairy]

I've used 'single marks' for internal thoughts, but I've also seen {these things, not sure what they're called} used.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Do you gUyS dO fOrMatTinG tO yOUr stOriES? Kitty thought.

 

[NotWise]

I include the character's thoughts in the narrative. Why would a first person narrator quote themselves? Seems a little ostentatious.

 

[HotCosmo]

If you are developing an interactive story game, you could always use parentheses for thoughts. This keeps the thoughts separate in the reader's mind. I've seen this technique used in quite a few cyoa games

Oh, I have never seen this. You mean something like...
(Oh, he's really cute,) she thought.

 

[HotCosmo]

I include the character's thoughts in the narrative. Why would a first person narrator quote themselves? Seems a little ostentatious.

He can read other people's thoughts.

 

[SmilingLez]

I've used 'single marks' for internal thoughts, but I've also seen {these things, not sure what they're called} used.

They are called box brackets or square brackets.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

[Why does this question keep coming up?] I dismissed that thought and asked a question of my own,"How many guys have you fucked today?"

 

[SmilingLez]

Oh, I have never seen this. You mean something like...
(Oh, he's really cute,) she thought.

Yes, but no end punctuation so it would be

( Oh, he's really cute ) she thought.

 

[TheLobster]

🗭 Some Unicode chicanery might work, too, 🗬 he thought.

 

[StillStunned]

{these things, not sure what they're called}

Braces, I believe.

 

[alohadave]

I also thought that I could use guillemets:
<<Oh, he's really cute,>> she thought.

If you are going to use guillemets, use the actual Unicode character, not angle brackets. Those are HTML code and will blank out the text.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Braces, I believe.

Ding, ding, ding, ding.....

braces are {}, brackets are [], and parentheses are ()

 

[Writer61]

Hey, I'm writing a kind of first-person story where writing thoughts is quite important because the main character is psychic. The problem is that, as I'm writing a story game, italics are not an option. The options I found on the internet are normal quotation marks with the appropriate tag:
"Oh, he's really cute," she thought.
And the other one is using the simple marks:
'Oh, he's really cute,' she thought.
I also thought that I could use guillemets:
<<Oh, he's really cute,>> she thought.
In your opinion, which is best? I like the second and the third ones because they differentiate inner dialogue and external dialogue, but I don't know. In case of using the second or third type, should I write an explanation at the start of the game to make this special use of quotation clear?

I use:

• "" for dialogue
• '' to distinguish phrases that might otherwise read oddly
• '' with the addition of a description (e.g. I thought) for unspoken thoughts
• italics for non-English words, e.g. merde
  

 

[Inkognito1]

What about asterisks?

*Nice beard, asshole*

 

[Writer61]

What about asterisks?

*Nice beard, asshole*

In markdown that would indicate italics, which might cause problems for some writers.

 

[HotCosmo]

What about asterisks?

*Nice beard, asshole*

Reserved symbol in Ink to create choices

 

[Writer61]

I also thought that I could use guillemets:

Leave guillemots alone, give beaks a chance!

 

[Actingup]

I include the character's thoughts in the narrative. Why would a first person narrator quote themselves? Seems a little ostentatious.

To give the inner voice the same force as if they were speaking aloud, particularly at key moments.

I was late for my interview. Hurrying around the corner, I collided with Mrs Fischer and her two terriers, sending us all flying in a tangle of arms, legs, dogs and their leads. While I lay on the sidewalk groaning, one of the dogs wandered over to sniff me, and then cocked its leg over me as if to express its contempt for the situation. Mrs Fischer was not making a sound, and I couldn’t see what had happened to the other dog.

“Well, at least the day can only improve,” I thought.

But it didn’t.