I am having trouble showing the protagonist's train of thought in my story. (Third Person- does it make a difference?). I'm not talking about opinions like 'He thought the tree looked pretty' but showing how the character mulls something over in his/her head and completely changes their opinion on something, sort of like thinking about the pros and cons of an idea. Does that make sense? Sorry if I am being vague. Thanks.
I dont use italics for thought; I save them for accenting, or foreign language.
I think Bethany's nailed it but it is difficult to describe without using an example. From the narrative, provided it's clear the character is in thought (and you don't necessarily have to use 'he/she thought'), then the following statement becomes a thought in the reader's mind.
eg. 'He stared over the bow. If the helmsman did not steer to port pretty soon they'd run straight into that iceberg ahead.'
Hi Adam,
How about trying it like a thought process and use italics to show that it is thoughts rather than the spoken word. Hope I'm of some help.
I tend to do this a lot when I'm writing, more so than my descriptive. The best way I can think of to describe it is that its a lot like first person but not? Sort of like when you are thinking, but try replacing all the I's and we's with him's and he's. I'm not sure if I made any sense there at all, so I'll try another one - I usually approach a characters thoughts and feelings a bit like I would when describing a scene.
Sorry if that's confusing, I've never been one for explaining things to others haha