# using italics for thoughts



## kimo333 (Oct 23, 2011)

when i start my first novel, i plan on using third-person limited view. if anyone has read the a song of iice and fire series by george rr martin, he uses italics for the characters direct thoughts. my question is, doyou guys think this is a good way to start writing.


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## HÃ«radÃ¯n (Oct 23, 2011)

start by seeing what the character is thinking? I don't see a problem with that. Though It may be better for us to see where the character is before we get into his mind (just a suggestion) but yeah I've seen some books start that way, shouldn't be a problem.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Oct 23, 2011)

Yes. It's easy to understand, it's a pretty common convention. I don't think anyone would be confused by it.


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## JBryden88 (Oct 23, 2011)

Just remember when you write it, underline it instead, if you intend to get it published. At least, that's what I've been told.


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## Raven's Quill (Oct 23, 2011)

JBryden, that's what I was told too, but only by one source. I'll let you know when I get word back on my ms whether they're ticked at me for italicising  

Kimo, I think italics for thoughts is pretty conventional. The important thing to remember is consistency. As long as you have that, you're pretty much about to do anything haha.


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## Lord Darkstorm (Oct 23, 2011)

How you deal with character thoughts really depends on how close you are to the character.  While third person is following a character, you can get so close that their thoughts can bleed into the narration and be understood as the character's thoughts without needing the italics.  This style isn't really that common, and is most useful with a single character pov story. 

For most others, italics is understood by most readers.  

Underlining italics is required by many publishers because it is easier to pick out over trying to see actual italicized words.  I use it while writing because it helps me know where the italics are.  Also it's easy enough to change later if you need to.  The proper way to do it for any publisher will be in their guidelines.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Oct 23, 2011)

I believe the underlining thing is about manuscript format. If you're submitting a traditional manuscript to a traditional publisher, they may require that you use underlining where you would want it to appear in italics. With e-publishing, of course, you should write it the way you want, since it's all pretty much WYSIWYG.

My novel's written in OpenOffice, and where I want italics, I use italics. (Once I'm done, I use Linux command-line tools to generate a MOBI file, although with the recent announcement about Kindle Format 8, it looks like generating ebooks that look the way you want is going to get easier. I'm really hoping they improve the Kindle Direct Publishing interface, too; it's pretty bad right now.)


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## mythique890 (Oct 24, 2011)

I've also heard that about underlining things you want italicized in ms format, mostly because underlining is much easier for editors to see.  In published form, I'd definitely go with italics for thoughts.


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## Thursday (Oct 24, 2011)

As a longtime reader I do prefer reading italics than a new chapter or an indented one. Following quotes-especially when you're quoting in the quoted first person's thoughts, can get very confusing.


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## Xanados (Oct 24, 2011)

Wheel of Time uses italics for thoughts to a great extent. I think it really adds to the believability of the characters and their emotion.


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## MichaelSullivan (Oct 25, 2011)

For those who are using italics to indicate direct thought - please remember to put them in first person present tense. You shouldn't see something like this.

_Could he really do this? _  should instead be _Can I really do this?_


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## CicadaGrrl (Oct 25, 2011)

Italics for thoughts are extremely common and have been for decades.  Personally, I dislike them.  You are already in the character's pov.  The emotions, thoughts, etc. are entirely what you are writing.  You can't even promise the reader this person is reliable.  So if you are already there, why set it apart?  Just state it.  Italics, to me, draw a reader out of the character.  It makes the reader aware that, yes, somewhere a writer has written this down.  You aren't really in the head of the character.  This character isn't really telling their own story, third person it may be--it should still come across as enveloped in the character's world.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Oct 25, 2011)

CicadaGrrl said:


> Italics for thoughts are extremely common and have been for decades.  Personally, I dislike them.  You are already in the character's pov.  The emotions, thoughts, etc. are entirely what you are writing.  You can't even promise the reader this person is reliable.  So if you are already there, why set it apart?  Just state it.



I think because italics are used to express conscious word-thoughts, and not emotions/feelings/opinions the way that plain text is. If you refer to someone in the third person, suddenly switching to first-person without something to offset it is jarring.

*Bob hated this part. Why do they have to do this to me? His mother set down the plate, wordless, the ceramic making a dull thump on the table.*

Versus:

*Bob hated this part. Why do they have to do this to me? His mother set down the plate, wordless, the ceramic making a dull thump on the table.*

Of course, you can even ignore the logical aspect and just point out that you will confuse fewer people by putting word-thoughts into italics, because that's what most people expect.

EDITED: Everything in QUOTE blocks is in italics. D'oh!


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## subdee (Oct 28, 2011)

While I am still new to the writing thing, the whole idea of using italics for the character's thoughts really hit me as the most appropriate formatting to use for such a job.

I can't tell how "right" it is by convention, but while writing my story in completely third person, when a character's thoughts jump in the middle of the story, italics seem to do the job perfectly.

But I was wondering, is it ok to write about the character's thoughts if the whole story is in the past tense?


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## MichaelSullivan (Oct 29, 2011)

CicadaGrrl said:


> Italics for thoughts are extremely common and have been for decades.  Personally, I dislike them.  You are already in the character's pov.  The emotions, thoughts, etc. are entirely what you are writing.  You can't even promise the reader this person is reliable.  So if you are already there, why set it apart?  Just state it.  Italics, to me, draw a reader out of the character.  It makes the reader aware that, yes, somewhere a writer has written this down.  You aren't really in the head of the character.  This character isn't really telling their own story, third person it may be--it should still come across as enveloped in the character's world.



If used to excess - I agree with you - it gets distracting. I do use this technique but spariningly and so when it is used there is usually a fair amount of emotion or drama associates with it.


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