A question about quotations

[aphrodite-1]

I need some help with the proper punctuation if any when writing what someone is thinking. Does this require quotation marks? Do you treat it as normal dialog? An example would be...

She gazed down the dark corridor. Was it him? Could this be the man she had spent so many months chatting with, walking toward her now?

I appreciate any help on this. I am working on a story where two cyber lovers meet for the first time in real life. As they approach each other so many thoughts are running through their minds, which I want to convey correctly.

 

[KillerMuffin]

That's internal dialogue. You can do one of two things here and the point of it all is clarity for the reader. A lot has to do with whether or not you spend the most time from her point of view, the narrator is perched on her shoulder and privy to her thoughts, not first person etc. If you spend a majority of the time there, then leaving it as is would be the logical thing. Obviously there will be quite a bit of internal dialogue.

If you have both of them thinking out loud frequently, then you'll need to tag it like . Frequently is, of course, subjective. However, do NOT put it in quotation marks. It is not speech.

The problem with marking internal dialogue is that at times so much of the story is internal dialogue. Tagging it also disrupts the story. Most of the time it's perfectly obvious to the reader what's happening and they find it irritating if you point it out to them like they're stupid. Sometimes it's not and you have to tag it. The key here is consistency. If you mark internal dialogue you have to mark all internal dialogue.

My personal preference in this instance would be to leave it alone. However, I haven't seen the whole story so I don't know how it would affect the general context of it. However, when I write things like this, I generally leave it alone. My editors have politely and not quite so politely suggested I do otherwise.

Untagged and marked:

She gazed down the dark corridor. Was it him? Could this be the man she had spent so many months chatting with, walking toward her now?

Tagged and marked:

She gazed down the dark corridor. Was it him? Could this be the man she had spent so many months chatting with, walking toward her now? she wondered.

 

[Weird Harold]

I need some help with the proper punctuation if any when writing what someone is thinking. Does this require quotation marks? Do you treat it as normal dialog?

Some previous threads on this subject with a wide variety of opinions.

http://www.literotica.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=21519&highlight=internal+AND+dialogue

(Look for Closet Desire's post on near the end of the thread.)

http://www.literotica.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=29129&highlight=internal+AND+dialogue

http://www.literotica.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=34590&highlight=internal+AND+dialogue

 

[aphrodite-1]

Thank you so much KM and WH. I didn't think the quotation marks were correct for internal dialog, but I hadn't thought about putting them in italics. It's obviously time to bring out my MLA handbook, (shakes blonde head at self).

I followed the threads from WH, very enlightening as well as entertaining. You are a wonderful group of people. Thanks again!