what sign to use for thought process

[bigshotjeev]

hey guys,

I am always confused while writing a story. For dialogue we use " (quotation marks or inverted commas) but what symbol is generally used for thought process?

 

[CopyCarver]

hey guys,

I am always confused while writing a story. For dialogue we use " (quotation marks or inverted commas) but what symbol is generally used for thought process?

Italics

 

[not2oldyet]

Using thought quotes? I have seen some

What is used for thought quotes? I have seen some use of three small letter o as in
ooo I don't think so... ooo
when there is only plain text offered - as nothing in English uses the 3 same letters in a row (ooo that I know of ooo)
You can alway use an author's comment before each chapter (or footnote if available) that uses such a convention, to explain it, if you can use another figure before the thought, or as the other suggestion, such as in a pdf file, where you can control the type in use, somewhat you can use a special font, or color.
Sometime the thoughts were presented as superscript or special fonts and styles usage [including brackets].
- This is very useful if writing ScienceFiction/Fantasy where there are thoughts between characters that are not overheard by other characters as only some have the ability... but gets confusing if multiple characters are involved, with different levels of communication, including real communications such as 2 way or 1 way radio communication between some, but not others, as used in real life now.
Have I confused you enough with choices yet?

 

[CopyCarver]

Have I confused you enough with choices yet?

If not, let's throw this into the mix. You can also go with the obvious: "he thought" or "she thought"

 

[Weird Harold]

hey guys,

I am always confused while writing a story. For dialogue we use " (quotation marks or inverted commas) but what symbol is generally used for thought process?

A Simple question with a complicated answer. The last time I checked, the latest revisionof the Chigaco Manual of Style says that thought, even direct internal dialogue, requires no special punctuation as the context should clearly distinguish between thought and narration.

I'm increasingly seeing that adopted as the standard for book publishers in the genres I normally read. It is also a convention that adapts well to online venues where Italics is difficult to implement or not supported.

The older convention was direct thoughts, aka internal dialogue, are "punctuated as verbal dialogue with Italics instead of quotation marks." That happens to be the convention I personally prefer where he technology supports it AND the predominant convention used here at Literotica.

A Third Option that dates from the days of Teletype communications and the limitations of ASCII is to use single quotation marks for internal dialogue and double quotation marks for external dialogue -- or the reverse where single quotation marks are the standard usage for dialogue.

The most common "error" I see in depeicting thoughts is confusion between "reported thoughts' aka narration and 'direct thoughts' aka internal dialogue.

Narration: She thought he was a very handsome man. -- No special punctuation or highlighting.

Internal Dialogue: (She thought,) That is one handsome man -- thoughts italicized; note the de-italicizing for emphasis where Italics would be used for emphasis in a verbal statement.

 

[sr71plt]

double quotes or roman text, "according to the context or the writer's preference" (Chicago Manual of Style 15, 11.47).

 

[bigshotjeev]

A Simple question with a complicated answer. The last time I checked, the latest revisionof the Chigaco Manual of Style says that thought, even direct internal dialogue, requires no special punctuation as the context should clearly distinguish between thought and narration.

I'm increasingly seeing that adopted as the standard for book publishers in the genres I normally read. It is also a convention that adapts well to online venues where Italics is difficult to implement or not supported.

The older convention was direct thoughts, aka internal dialogue, are "punctuated as verbal dialogue with Italics instead of quotation marks." That happens to be the convention I personally prefer where he technology supports it AND the predominant convention used here at Literotica.

A Third Option that dates from the days of Teletype communications and the limitations of ASCII is to use single quotation marks for internal dialogue and double quotation marks for external dialogue -- or the reverse where single quotation marks are the standard usage for dialogue.

The most common "error" I see in depeicting thoughts is confusion between "reported thoughts' aka narration and 'direct thoughts' aka internal dialogue.

Narration: She thought he was a very handsome man. -- No special punctuation or highlighting.

Internal Dialogue: (She thought,) That is one handsome man -- thoughts italicized; note the de-italicizing for emphasis where Italics would be used for emphasis in a verbal statement.

I had done a lot of search before I posted this subject in this forums. It was observed that most people use Italics for character's thoughts. But I personally don't like using italics.

I think the 'Internal Dialogue' by 'Weird Harold' is a nice tip. It properly distinguishes between the actual conversation and the thoughts going on in individual person's mind. But I feel that the writers should write a note explaining in brief about this idea so that when the reader starts reading the story, he can relate to writer's way of thinking.

 

[Weird Harold]

...I feel that the writers should write a note explaining in brief about this idea so that when the reader starts reading the story, he can relate to writer's way of thinking.

I don't think that an author's note is really necessary unless you're doing something really odd like trying to distinguish between private thoughts, transmitte thoughts, received thoughts and trying to make each telepathic Identity unique. (I've read a story like that and the author's note explaining the custom punctuation sysem for telepathy was almost an necessity.)

However, an author's note explaining which punctuation convention you've chosen to use is almost an insult to your readers' ability to identify common conventions from context. It's one of the reasons publisher's are going to the "no special treatment" convention so readily -- it's relatively easy to identify the author's intent regarding thoughts if the thoughts are properly worded since direct thoughts are usually present tense and narrative summaries are usually in the same tense as the rest of the narrative.

 

[snooper]

In all my books I have used double quotes for speech and single quotes for thoughts, leaving italics for other uses. As most of them involve the use of other languages for people speaking in different languages I have a further problem which I solve by putting:

Since some of my readers may not be fully fluent in either French or in the Kobekistani dialect of Arabic, the convention used is that all direct speech in normal quotation marks is in English, thus: "This is English"; French is in chevron quotation marks, thus: « This is French »; and Arabic is in italic between tildes, thus ~ This is Arabic ~.

 

[sr71plt]

In all my books I have used double quotes for speech and single quotes for thoughts, leaving italics for other uses. As most of them involve the use of other languages for people speaking in different languages I have a further problem which I solve by putting:

Since some of my readers may not be fully fluent in either French or in the Kobekistani dialect of Arabic, the convention used is that all direct speech in normal quotation marks is in English, thus: "This is English"; French is in chevron quotation marks, thus: « This is French »; and Arabic is in italic between tildes, thus ~ This is Arabic ~.

That American publishing system doesn't use single quotes for any form of dialogue. If a book published recently in the U.S. market has done so, I'd like to see a citation to that.