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Either can be used, as @DPT says. I heard a loud screech from beyond the gates, then silence. 'What is going on?' I thought. Here, effectively, you are presenting the thought as internal mono...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-12T21:57:26Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38512 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T09:41:28Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38512 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Either can be used, as @DPT says. > I heard a loud screech from beyond the gates, then silence. 'What is going on?' I thought. Here, effectively, you are presenting the thought as internal monologue. The character is effectively talking to himself. You therefore treat it as if you were writing dialogue - present tense. It doesn't really matter that the character is talking to himself rather than to someone else, nor that the words are thought rather than said out loud. > I heard a loud screech from beyond the gates, then silence. What was going on? In this case, as @DPT states, the thought is kept closer to the narration. The character isn't necessarily verbalising the thought, it can be more of a feeling. Consider: when you are startled, you don't necessarily verbalise in your mind 'what's going on' - by the time it would have taken you to verbalise, you're already responding in one way or another. **Either way is valid, but they create different effects.**
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2018-08-25T21:09:07Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 4