Quotation Marks for Character's Thinking?

[kendo1]

Personally,I think it's quaint the way you colonials across the pond have corrupted the English language!You even drive on the wrong side of the road.
Seattle Jack should have said'They even spell 'color' incorrectly'-note the single quotes.
I prefer the single quote option of Ladycibelle,but there again,that's from a British viewpoint.
'Sorry,Blacksnake'he thoght-oops I missed a 'U'-olde worlde charm.
I used to be a bartender about thirty years ago-I always served 'dry' unless asked otherwise.James Bond was British.
To be serious,love the thread.
Over here I notice that recent publications use single quotes for speech and as
Blacksnake said,no quotes for thoughts.

 

[LadyCibelle]

*snip*I prefer the single quote option of Ladycibelle,but there again,that's from a British viewpoint. *snip*

That's what happens when you're married to a Brit...you get all his habits and way of writing words

 

[Seattle Zack]

Personally,I think it's quaint the way you colonials across the pond have corrupted the English language!You even drive on the wrong side of the road.
Seattle Jack should have said'They even spell 'color' incorrectly'-note the single quotes.
I prefer the single quote option of Ladycibelle,but there again,that's from a British viewpoint.
'Sorry,Blacksnake'he thoght-oops I missed a 'U'-olde worlde charm.
I used to be a bartender about thirty years ago-I always served 'dry' unless asked otherwise.James Bond was British.
To be serious,love the thread.
Over here I notice that recent publications use single quotes for speech and as
Blacksnake said,no quotes for thoughts.

Well, as you know, snp, being British and all, the preference for UK publishers is to use single quotes for spoken dialogue. Paradoxically, wouldn't that make it logical to use double quotes for thoughts? I have several British Ian Fleming first editions, and all the dialogue is single quotes, no quotation at all for thoughts.

Bond may not have even been British, according to the novels. His father was Scottish, Andrew Bond, and his mother Swiss, Monique something-or-other, both of whom died in a mountain climbing accident long before the time of the books. According to James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, written by John Pearson (who also wrote a bio of Ian Fleming himself), Bond was born in Essex Germany (although this is not mentioned in any of Fleming's novels).

In the novels, his preference is for bourbon whiskey, actually, rather than the vodka martini "shaken not stirred." That was purely a cinematic invention.

 

[Seattle Zack]

This is an exerpt from the submission guidelines for Chimera Press, a UK-based BDSM publisher:

6. Indicate dialogue with single quotation marks (‘ ’). Double quotation marks (“ ”) should be used to denote figures of speech or quotations within dialogue.

7. Type titles (Mr, Mrs, Dr) and acronyms without stops.

8. Spell accurately. Use a dictionary or the spell-check on your word processor.

9. Spell with ‘s’ and not ‘z’ (realise, recognise). Use okay as opposed to OK; no one as opposed to no-one.

10. Use italics for: emphasis; foreign words and phrases (except proper names, buildings and institutions); names of books, magazines, plays and musical works.

11. No apostrophes in phone, plane, bus, eighties, nineties, flu, 1920s, PCs etc.

12. Do not use capitals for sir, madam, miss, count, duke etc (except when a title - e.g. ‘Sir John Smith’)

13. Use hyphens for composite adjectives (e.g. bitter-sweet, red-gold); do not use hyphens for ‘ly’ endings (e.g. ‘fully dressed’, not ‘fully-dressed’) or adverbs, except for ‘well’, ‘ill’, ‘new’ and ‘old’ when used before a noun (e.g. old-fashioned, well-known).

 

[snooper]

This is an exerpt from the submission guidelines for Chimera Press, a UK-based BDSM publisher:

...

13. Use hyphens for composite adjectives (e.g. bitter-sweet, red-gold); do not use hyphens for ‘ly’ endings (e.g. ‘fully dressed’, not ‘fully-dressed’) or adverbs, except for ‘well’, ‘ill’, ‘new’ and ‘old’ when used before a noun (e.g. old-fashioned, well-known).[/i]Snooper's emphasis.

It seems a pity when laying the law down about the technicallities of writing, that they don't know the difference between a noun and an adjectival part of a verb.

 

[Seattle Zack]

Yeah, snooper, that kind of caught my eye too ... but, hey, they're paying for it. Give 'em what they want, right?

To never split infinitives, that's my motto.

 

[EroticKeys]

may i suggest a... : ...for the thoughts process...

"She looks great in that dress," said Bob. But she'd look stunning in only the stockings and heels: he thought.

...just an idea from a newbie.

 

[Weird Harold]

may i suggest a... : ...for the thoughts process...

"She looks great in that dress," said Bob. But she'd look stunning in only the stockings and heels: he thought.

...just an idea from a newbie.

While a Colon -- or asterisk, slash, pound sign, or other charcter -- often used as "telepathic quotation marks" in science fiction and fantasy to distinguish telepathic communictions, such freedom of choice is NOT available for punctuating 'Internal Dialogue,' AKA ordinary thoughts.

Ordinary thoughts should be treated as "dialogue without quotation marks" and identified by italics, single quotes (or the opposite of the standard for external dialogue) or no markings at all.

Depending on the publishing venue, the publisher may set a requirement for using one of the three options, but there are only those three options for punctuation of internal dialogue.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

may i suggest a... : ...for the thoughts process...

"She looks great in that dress," said Bob. But she'd look stunning in only the stockings and heels: he thought.

...just an idea from a newbie.

Welcome to the AH EK,

IMHO, the problem with your idea is a colon can be used to indicate the beginning of a quote. Now USUALLY that's in non-fiction and USUALLY it's a longish quote. But it could still confuse readers and irritate editors.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[snooper]

Welcome to the AH EK,

Oh dear, RF. You are getting as senile as I; surely you can tell your AH from your EF?

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Oh dear, RF. You are getting as senile as I; surely you can tell your AH from your EF?

Smart ass. Sass your elders will you? What kind of trooper are you to do such a thing?

Actually, I was welcoming EroticKeys into the super-secret AHEK, the ultra esoteric erotic organization for members of the AH "in" crowd. I'm sure you would have done the...oh, wait, that's right, you're not a--. Oh, shit.

Now don't you go paying any attention to anything I just said, snooper old buddy. It was all just a put on, a big joke, honest.

Whew.

Rumple "CYA" Foreskin

 

[snooper]

...Sass your elders ...

I didn't realise that you were that old. I thought, in my ignorance, that you were born some years after me; after WWII even?

Rumple "CYA" Foreskin

Shouldn't that read <Rumple "CIA" Foreskin>?

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I didn't realise that you were that old. I thought, in my ignorance, that you were born some years after me; after WWII even?

Shouldn't that read <Rumple "CIA" Foreskin>?

Close but no cigar. However, the spooks in the CIA tend to play a lot of CYA.

When it comes to age, I'll confess to being a post WWII "Baby Booomer." But you know the saying about it's not the mileage but the wear and tear? Well, trust me, I've been worn and torn.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[scrtplsrs]

I've had the same question myself.

One suggestion to me had been to use italics to indicate a person's thought. However on Literotica the italics don't seem to come through too clearly so I'm not sure if its practical plus reading lines of italics could be difficult and a little cumbersome.

The single quotation marks idea seems pretty solid to me. It would definitely set the character's thoughts off from dialogue. I'd say give Lady Cibelle's suggestion a try and if that doesn't work pick something that does work for you. But, most importantly pick one and be consistent so your readers will understand when a character is thinking or talking.

Okay I'm going to stick my nose in here. Per instructions from a senior editor at a major book house, when I questioned this myself, "character thoughts should be in italics to set it off from characters speaking."

Okay, I'll go back into hiding now. Thank You.

 

[Seattle Zack]

The best way to get the proper italics into your story is to insert the html tags yourself, then paste it into the submissions box as a text file ....

Although it's kind of a pain in the ass, it gets posted much quicker, as the site owners don't have to do it for you.

There's an excellent how-to essay by Alex de Kok which explains it in detail:

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=45432