Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Quotation marks for inner thoughts and telepathy

Hi!

I know there tons of examples here but right now I can't think of a story that has both and is on the gfic-archvies (no italics) no less.

Okay, lets start easy. In a third person POV story there is sometimes inner thoughts displayed as direct speech. Sure, you can always use indirect speech, too, but still. I checked with some printed novels and there the direct speech is usually printed in italics.

Lois was thinking to herself what a lucky girl she was.
I'm a really lucky girl, Lois thought.

And then there is telepathic conversation, something a bit less common in your average novel. In LnC verse, I've seen mostly angle brackets for that kind of thing, < for opening quote and > for the closing quote.

So, how would you translate that to the gfic-archive's possibilities?

Right now I'm using >> << for direct speech thoughts and would use < > for telepathy. But I know that the >> << aren't really the best way to deal with this

So, any suggestions from those better versed in the grammar jungle? Your help's very much appreciated.

Thanks, Michael

Well, technically, in novels there is no difference. Both telepathy and direct speech thoughts are italicized. So it would be like this:

I'm a lucky girl, Lois thought.

AND

You were examining his posterior, Ching accused Zara through their mental link.

Italics are also used for emphasis in novels. So, for all three of those, I just use asterisks:

*I'm a lucky girl,* Lois thought.

AND

*You were examining his posterior,* Ching accuse Zara through their mental link.

AND

"I *hate* this!" she whined.

The reader should be able to figure out what the asterisks are for based on the context of the sentence.

Ahhhhhhh /lightbulb goes on/

Thanks, Michael

Thought Dandello's advice is generally sound, if you're considering what to use to suit the Archive, Michael, I wouldn't use asterisks.

That's because traditionally over the years asterisks on the Archive have been used to denote emphasis on words:

"*You* know what I'm talking about!" complained Lois.

Traditionally, too, direct thoughts and telepathy have been denoted on the Archive by using < > or / /:

<I'm a really lucky girl>, Lois thought

/I'm a really lucky girl/, Lois thought

So if you used asterisks to denote direct thoughts on the Archive, you might confuse some long term readers.

OTOH, whatever you use, you could always just pop in a little author's note at the top of the story to let readers know what you've chosen and, even using asterisks, you should avoid any puzzlement.

LabRat

Thanks, Labby!

Michael