Punctuation For Thoughts

(Sorry if this is the wrong category for this type of question)

So I've always liked to include the thoughts of the POV character in my stories, even if it's just a snippet. Generally, I've been doing this in the same way that I would speech, but with a relevant dialogue tag, and so far I haven't had any issues with submissions.

However, I was reading articles recently that said thoughts should never be within quotations and should just be italics. So my question is:

1) Is the use of italics the correct way to punctuate thoughts? I love you, I thought vs "I love you," I thought.

2) Would it require a dialogue tag to go along with it, or is the italics enough by itself?

3) What is the preferred method of punctuating inner thoughts within story submissions on the site?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

I would suggest using italics. If it's clear that the italicized passage represents the character's thoughts, then you can omit the dialog tag.

I have always done it with dialogue, but I guess the italics things works. A story mod would have to chime in.

Thank you for your help. It just felt wrong to do it with italics, but if that's how it is suppose to be then fair enough. I probably just didn't pay attention at school when it was covered. Thanks again

Using italics is way clearer for me. There's no confusion with dialogues, and you avoid clogging the narrative with all the tags.

I've used italics exclusively in my latest series to represent thoughts, and I prefer it as a device to indicate them, as long as it's made clear that's what they are on first usage. In first person, it's fairly obvious so it may not even need tagging as such. Depends how clever you are at introducing them.

I've also seen double quotes for direct speech and single quotes for thoughts. That also works, as long as it's consistent, although it can be less clear if the story is read quickly: apostrophes are easy to miss if a story is exciting.

The key is consistency. End of the day, you want readers to consume your work as effortlessly as possible, so any convention you use to help them do that is welcome.

Italics, unless it’s in the first person, then there is no need.

Quote by Scot2469
Italics, unless it’s in the first person, then there is no need.

This also works, and I've done it this way in the past if it's clear the thoughts are thoughts (which most of the time they would be if it's written well).

As I mentioned above, as long as it's consistent and clear to people consuming your content, use any convention you wish. If it's not clear, mods will return it and ask for clarity.

Italics. I use it in first person when my m.c is having intense/crazed/devil on the shoulder thoughts but it depends on the character. I don't use it for rational thoughts and include those in the regular body of the story because a wall of italics isn't visually appealing.