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GMH2 Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Do you use quotation marks for thoughts?

0If you have a piece of text in which a person performs an action (i.e. sat on the rock and stared out to sea) and then has a thought (Would John love this view in the same way as she did), would you put that thought in any kind of quotation marks? If the thought included a question, would you use a question mark? Any help gratefully received. 02br
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00GMH202br
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00e.g. Anna sat on the rock and stared out to sea. Would John love this view in the same way as she did. It was too bad that she only had dull Kevin with whom to share the experience. Would he never stop talking and just allow her to enjoy it instead of having to endure a running commentary on everything in front of them.0-
  

Top answer

0You can't justify quotations in that sentence about a thought, but a question mark at the end of the sentence is fine. 02br 02br 00Consider placing the word "only" AFTER the verb "had": It was too bad that she had only dull Keven . .

— Ikia

  • 0You can't justify quotations in that sentence about a thought, but a question mark at the end of the sentence is fine.
  • 02br 02br 00Consider placing the word "only" AFTER the verb "had": It was too bad that she had only dull Keven .
  • .
  • 02br 02br 00Ikia0-
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23 Answers
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0You can't justify quotations in that sentence about a thought, but a question mark at the end of the sentence is fine. 02br
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00Consider placing the word "only" AFTER the verb "had": It was too bad that she had only dull Keven . . . 02br
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00Ikia0-
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0I think I'd leave out the quotation marks and add question marks too:01blockquote
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10Anna sat on the rock and stared out to sea. Would John love this view in the same way that she did? It was too bad that she only had dull Kevin with whom to share the experience. Would he never stop talking? Why didn't he just allow her to enjoy it, instead of making
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0Hi,02br
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00Perhaps writers could adapt to the written word the method that Blue Bottle used to use on the Goon Show on British radio years ago. He used to speak to someone, and then speak his thoughts out loud by first signalling that they were thoughts by saying the word 'thinks'.02br
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00eg 01font00Yes, mine capitan,
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I dont want the first line in my story to read- Max thought to himself......

This is the first paragraph in my story and I'm not sure how to let the reader know that these are the characters thoughts.

Chapter One


I died in the fire, when the zeppelin Hindenburg was destroyed. Thirty six others lost their lives in that disaster. But then the PreDEC rescuers
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You could write "Thinks" as suggested by Clive.
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AnonymousI dont want the first line in my story to read- Max thought to himself......

This is the first paragraph in my story and I'm not sure how to let the reader know that these are the characters thoughts.

Chapter One

I died in the fire, when the zeppelin Hindenburg was destroyed. Thirty six others lost their lives in that disa
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0What if it was something like: Why am I here, he thought02br
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00Would it be: "Why am I here?", he thought02br
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00OR02br
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00Why am I here?, he thought0-
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0Pls be aware that some modern writers (say Joyce, Faulkner or Gaddis, some of them in what is called stream of consciousness) 01b00won't02b00tell you by markers that the character has just changed or that now the author's quoting their thoughts. You really need to read very carefully050010id1
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0A common literary device in modern novels is to use italics for internal thoughts. 0-
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You can use either quotation marks or italics to show what your character is thinking.
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