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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41998
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41998
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

This will be a matter of opinion. My opinion is **no,** it is not okay. I write in 3PL myself, exclusively, and everything I write is as if the MC is seeing it.

You are doing nothing but saving space, and saving space is not important. I would probably write that scene as:

> Alice sat up proudly, then shrunk back down.
> 
> _She just realized where she was,_ Bob thought.

But, since Bob is the only one that _can_ think [whose thoughts are ever shown], and this is indicated by italics, the following would suffice:

> Alice sat up proudly, then shrunk back down.
> 
> _She just realized where she was._

Then, because things should be filtered through Bob's mind, I'd add some take on it; Bob should feel something about what he has seen. Not just report it. Perhaps he's sympathetic.

> Alice sat up proudly, then shrunk back down.
> 
> _She just realized where she was. Too bad, anywhere else and she's got a right to be proud._

My narrator is not the MC, and the narrator can describe visual things in ways Bob would not. For example, "sitting up proudly". I can't be certain Alice is "proud", but I can be just as certain, visually, as saying Alice is Angry, afraid, grieving, etc. So I don't mind the attribution of "proudly".

I also don't mind if the 3P narrator gets poetic or imaginative in their descriptions of a setting, in ways the MC would not.

But as far as knowing what is in any character's mind: that is what the "LIMITED" means. Find a way for Bob to interpret what is in Alice's mind. And make it clear, don't make us infer what Bob inferred.

Original score: 13