Issue

Private thoughts

Guidelines

When you come to a character's thought, you have to narrate it in a way so your listener knows it isn't being said out loud. If your listener thinks the character said something out loud, when it was a private thought. the listener will expect the other characters to react accordingly. If they don't, he will wonder why not.

• First person narration: if your character is alone, this is not going to be a problem. It's only during dialogue that you can easily confuse the listener.
• Third person: when you have used italics, instead of 'he thought' or 'she wondered', the narrator has entered the mind of a character, so use that character's voice for the thought:

Sometimes the narrator will be describing what John is thinking, but retaining the third person perspective. If so, that's the narrator voice.

Normally, a slight change in pitch or pace can be used indicate a private thought. Another alternative is to add a word or two (even though they aren't in your book), to clarify that what you are saying is a silent thought. It won't harm your book to add a neutral 'John thought' to a sentence. Say it like you would a typical 'he said'. Confusion avoided.

Stay away from editing tricks like adding an echo or old telephone sound (a la old time radio broadcasts) for unspoken thoughts. Those are stale sound effects.