I received a couple of comments on my posted work which I have to say were very helpful, one point in particular is the fact that you don't capitalise after someone has paused in speech when you go to. "Set fire to the Christians!"said Nero, curling his lip in a sardonic sneer of disdain. "we have enough to illuminate the gardens until dawn." Does the same rule apply to written thoughts?
Paul
Yep thanks Jonathan. I do italicise when it's thoughts, I think it reads clearer and sometimes yes I will write he thought it doesn't always seem to fit the run though does it! and the full stop yep get that now, as you would had it been normal text, I think I misunderstood that point when I read the comments on my work. Hopefully I have corrected what was pointed out I didn't realise that when I deleted the work to correct it it also deleted the comments, I felt I had let those people down. hey ho we live and learn. Thanks again. Paul
Actually that's not quite right. The full stop after 'disdain' means 'we' should have a capital. If there'd been a comma instead of the stop then no capital.
Thoughts...it depends how you write them but they wouldn't usually be between quotation marks. I tend to italicise, which some publishers apparently don't like. You could also write 'He thought that...' which is within the narrative but it's clear what you mean.
You can even write thought as a run-on from some other character action but this generally only works when you're writing from an individual's POV rather than omniscient. eg 'He looked up at the ceiling: it definitely needed a coat of paint'. There's no need for 'he thought' after that.
Hope that helps :)