Another dumb question

[cookiejar]

Help me...please. This may sound silly but I've ran into this a few times. If your character is thinking, do you put it in quotes? Does it have its own paragraph?


The sentence is:


"Maybe it had been too easy," he mused. "Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?"


Thanks for any help.

Cookie(who needs to go back to school)

 

[cloudy]

I was always taught to put it in quotes to distinguish it from the narrative.

If it's dialogue, it's usually signalled with s/he said, or something.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I prefer reading thoughts that are italicized or set off with single quotes. Double quotes always alerts me to something being verbalized. I'm not sure which is more grammatically correct, but I typically put it in single quotes if I'm copy/pasting as italics don't carry over that way, but if I'm uploading a word.doc then I'll use italics to set off thoughts.

Maybe it had been too easy, he mused. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?

'Maybe it had been too easy,' he mused. 'Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?'

~lucky

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Help me...please. This may sound silly but I've ran into this a few times. If your character is thinking, do you put it in quotes? Does it have its own paragraph?


The sentence is:


"Maybe it had been too easy," he mused. "Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?"


Thanks for any help.

Cookie(who needs to go back to school)

If that is the way you're quoting dialogue, then the answer is no. You can't use the same notation for thought and dialogue, or it will be impossible to tell which is which.

There are usually two ways to do it. Either by using italics or, my favourite, nothing at all. The narrator knows the character's thoughts and it's part of the narrator's job to relay them to the reader, so there is no real need to distinguish it from narration...

Maybe it had been too easy, he mused. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?

 

[cloudy]

Hi Lauren.

trying my damnedest not to receive those pictures.

 

[Randi Grail]

I tend to kind of smuggle them into the narration. No quotes or other formatting. This works imo pretty well as long as it's in first person pov.

Like so:

Trying to steady my still racing heartbeat, I stepped into the elevator. Maybe it had been too easy. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship? However, I had no time for such thoughts now, because when the elevator door opened at ground level, I was immediately attacked by a swarm of vicious ninja smurfs.

 

[cookiejar]

I tend to kind of smuggle them into the narration. No quotes or other formatting. This works imo pretty well as long as it's in first person pov.

Like so:

Trying to steady my still racing heartbeat, I stepped into the elevator. Maybe it had been too easy. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship? However, I had no time for such thoughts now, because when the elevator door opened at ground level, I was immediately attacked by a swarm of vicious ninja smurfs.

Sheesh, that's my paragraph exactly Randi. Are you psychic?


Thanks everyone for 4 different answers. I'm teasing.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I tend to kind of smuggle them into the narration. No quotes or other formatting. This works imo pretty well as long as it's in first person pov.

Like so:

Trying to steady my still racing heartbeat, I stepped into the elevator. Maybe it had been too easy. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship? However, I had no time for such thoughts now, because when the elevator door opened at ground level, I was immediately attacked by a swarm of vicious ninja smurfs.

Exactly! With first person narrators it's clearly the best choice, but even in third person it works better than the other options, in my view:

Trying to steady his still racing heartbeat, he stepped into the elevator. Maybe it had been too easy. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship? However, he had no time for such thoughts now, because when the elevator door opened at ground level, he was immediately attacked by a swarm of vicious ninja smurfs.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

I prefer reading thoughts that are italicized or set off with single quotes. Double quotes always alerts me to something being verbalized. I'm not sure which is more grammatically correct, but I typically put it in single quotes if I'm copy/pasting as italics don't carry over that way, but if I'm uploading a word.doc then I'll use italics to set off thoughts.

Maybe it had been too easy, he mused. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?

'Maybe it had been too easy,' he mused. 'Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?'

~lucky

I thought that too until the last time I used it. I uplaoded my story in Word format so it had to be converted. When it was posted many of the italics were converted wrong. Whole paragraphs were in italics instead of just one line. It was a little bit of a mess.

I think it is the best way of doing it but it's not without hastles.

CD

 

[cookiejar]

Thanks to everyone. You make it much easier for hacks like me to write.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I thought that too until the last time I used it. I uplaoded my story in Word format so it had to be converted. When it was posted many of the italics were converted wrong. Whole paragraphs were in italics instead of just one line. It was a little bit of a mess.

I think it is the best way of doing it but it's not without hastles.

CD

Instead of submitting in Word format, paste on the Story Text window and add the italics tags yourself:

<i>Maybe it had been too easy</i>, he mused. <i>Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?</i>

There's a 'Preview' button you can use before you hit 'Submit', so you can see if you got them all right.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Instead of submitting in Word format, paste on the Story Text window and add the italics tags yourself:

<i>Maybe it had been too easy</i>, he mused. <i>Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?</i>

There's a 'Preview' button you can use before you hit 'Submit', so you can see if you got them all right.

I actually never knew that you could do that. Maybe I'll try it next time. It's a better approach than I used. I hated getting those "what's with the italics?" e-mails.

Thanks Lauren.

 

[Liar]

Exactly! With first person narrators it's clearly the best choice, but even in third person it works better than the other options, in my view:

Trying to steady his still racing heartbeat, he stepped into the elevator. Maybe it had been too easy. Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship? However, he had no time for such thoughts now, because when the elevator door opened at ground level, he was immediately attacked by a swarm of vicious ninja smurfs.

And remember, never forget to include ninja smurfs.


Ok, what I was going to say was that that is the way I always do it. But on the other hand, my narrators are a weird bunch, most often thinking and reflecting on things almost as much as telling what's going on.

#L

 

[Lauren Hynde]

And remember, never forget to include ninja smurfs.


Ok, what I was going to say was that that is the way I always do it. But on the other hand, my narrators are a weird bunch, most often thinking and reflecting on things almost as much as telling what's going on.

#L

Those are the best.

 

[cloudy]

Hi Lauren.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Hi, Cloudy

 

[Weird Harold]

There's a 'Preview' button you can use before you hit 'Submit', so you can see if you got them all right.

One thing the preview function can't catch is if one of your blocks of italics falls at the break between two Lit pages. It's threfore best to use the tags liberally -- i.e italicize each sentence separately to minimize the chance of having messed up italics at page break.


I personally use Italics for Literal thoughts as opposed to Narrative thoughts.

John thought he might like to make a pass at her

Vs

John thought, I'd sure like to suck up to her and see if she'd let me suck her all over.

The first is narrated thoughts and I don't make any distinction or break with other narration.

The second is "Internal Dialogue" and I treat it exactly as I do regular dialogue -- it's own paragraph, comma separated tags, etc -- except I punctuate it with italics instead of double quotes. (In a pure text environment, I use single quotes instead of Italics.)

 

[Randi Grail]

One thing the preview function can't catch is if one of your blocks of italics falls at the break between two Lit pages. It's threfore best to use the tags liberally -- i.e italicize each sentence separately to minimize the chance of having messed up italics at page break.

I don't think I've ever seen Lit break a page in the middle of a paragraph. So if you put <i> and </i> tags at the beginning and end of each paragraph, it should work fine for longer chunks of text too.

 

[overthebow]

Help me...please. This may sound silly but I've ran into this a few times. If your character is thinking, do you put it in quotes? Does it have its own paragraph?


The sentence is:


"Maybe it had been too easy," he mused. "Wasn't a good artist supposed to endure hardship?"


Thanks for any help.

Cookie(who needs to go back to school)

The goal is that it make sense when you read it. It should be consistent and we'll get the style.

You can tell us what the character is feeling. That uses the Omniscient Narrator to fill in those vicarious bits.