When writing in third person, how do you punctuate a character's thoughts?

Question

For example, I wonder what time the store closes, she thought.
Should it be, "I wonder what time the store closes?," she thought.

Answer 1

It's going to depend on the editors and publishing houses. There will be a resounding difference of opinion and you will have to find what works best for you. Due to the limits of the postings, I used a forward slash to represent italics.

The old method was to use single quotation marks for thoughts and standard quotation marks for spoken dialog.

First, Italics will rule for any stand alone thought- something the character is thinking conscientiously. Each thought should be a complete sentence and it's not necessary to use speech tags with a clear character point of view in the scene.

An example of thought and speech mixed in the same paragraph "moment" and differentiated by punctuation:
/Gee, I can't wait to get home./ Sherry ran her fingers over the buttons of the phone before pressing the flashing indicator on her line, "Thank you for calling, how may I direct your call?"

Narrative works very well for random, non-specific thoughts.
The picture of her husband on the wall of her cubicle gave her the motivation to finish out the work day and enjoy a relaxing glass of wine before dinner. She chose not to answer the new incoming call, but maintained her focus on the sales report.

Don't Italicize or use quotation marks for thoughts where you use dialog style speech markers. Editors tend to rephrase this type of internal dialog because it can be confusing for the reader.
Example: A glass of wine would be nice, she thought.
Better: /A glass of wine would be nice./

Answer 2

Punctuating Thoughts

Answer 3

I never saw any "correct" way to punctuate a character's thoughts. So you could choose to italicize his/her thoughts or you could use quotation marks. What is important is to be consistent.

The Rule: What is said is put inside the quotation marks.
Who said it = tag is usually separated by a comma,

"Blabla blabla," tag. OR Tag, "Blabla blabla."
"I'm tired," declared Merlin. Or Merlin declared, "I'm tired."
What about questions?

"I wonder what time the store closes?" she thought.

Why no comma?

Because the character's thought is a question.
Honor the question with a question mark,
then put the tag (she thought) and the end line punctuation.

"Oh, no! The store is closed," she thought.
In this instance, since the thought is a declarative sentence
the comma is included inside the quotation marks.

The Rule: What is said is put inside the quotation marks.
Who said it=tag is usually separated by a comma,
UNLESS the quote is a question.
In that case, use the question mark.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Punctuation is always to make it easier for the reader to understand, but internal thoughts are not dialog, so no quotes. I italicize the thought to make it easier for my reader to understand that the character is thinking, rather than a comment inserted by the narrator.

Answer 5

The character's thoughts go in quotations, the comma comes after the quotes.

For example: "I wonder what time the store closes?", she thought.

Answer 6

Well, I find it hard to believe that if you want to write you've never read a third person book where the characters thought, but it's often done with italics.

Answer 7

I agree with the people, you should use the Italic- but you can still add "she thought" afterwards, or before hand... if you want :)

if you add the quataion marks it would seem like she is talking outloud... speaking...

Answer 8

When I have multiple characters communicating in a group, how can I word their speech without repetitively saying, (he said or Mark said?)

Answer 9

Italicize.

I wonder what time the store closes?, she thought.

Answer 10

"she wondered what time the store closed". or you could put it in italics. that's what i do if i don't just incorporate it into 3rd.