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Q&A How do you write a character's internal monologue?

I've seen two main methods of writing a character's inner monologue One is to use italics Dean is being silly thought Sam Another is to quote the text "Dean is being silly" thought Sam Or you co...

0 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Liath‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:28:03Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/10686
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Liath‭ · 2019-12-08T03:28:03Z (about 5 years ago)
I've seen two main methods of writing a character's inner monologue

One is to use italics  
_Dean is being silly_ thought Sam

Another is to quote the text  
"Dean is being silly" thought Sam

Or you could avoid it altogether and simply relate what the character thought  
Sam thought Dean was being silly.

Personally I don't like to quote thoughts as it can lead to confusion between their speech.

What is the correct way to indicate that you're quoting their internal monologue as opposed to your characters' spoken word?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-04-07T07:49:21Z (over 10 years ago)
Original score: 4