One of the most exciting aspects of literature is the chance to get inside another persons head. No other art form allows this so directly. Movies and TV rely on outer clues to the characters thoughts, such as facial expressions. But with fiction and memoirs, readers can actually get to see what the character is thinking. I am often asked about how to present inner dialogue, where you show a characters thoughts. In particular, I am often asked about formatting -- should you put the thoughts inside quote marks?

There are different kinds of inner dialogue... - Indirect thought. Example: She told herself the noise was just her imagination. - Direct thought. Example: "Its just your imagination", she told herself.

There are no universal rules for how to format inner dialogue. The key is to avoid confusing readers. For example, you dont want readers to mistake the characters thoughts for speech the character is saying out loud. For this reason, when writing inner dialogue, it is not common to use quotation marks the way you would with spoken dialogue.

Here is an example of a passage containing inner dialogue.

She sat at her desk writing a newsletter, when suddenly she became aware of a rustling noise coming from the closet. Its nothing, she told herself. Its your imagination. But, no, she could hear it clearly, a rustling, and then a dull thud. Like that time in the forest, she thought, with a sudden coldness in her stomach. She stood up and took a step toward the closet, then paused. It was ridiculous to go look in the closet; there was nothing there, nothing. But now the closet door began to open, very slowly. Oh no. Oh no, its happening again.

In this version of the passage, no special formatting is used. Two instances of inner dialogue are marked with the phrases "she told herself" and "she thought". But others aren't labelled at all; for example, "there was nothing there, nothing". Since the passage is clearly told from a particular characters point of view, the reader understands that this too is her thought.

In fact, I could remove the labels in the earlier instances as well...

She sat at her desk writing a newsletter, when suddenly she became aware of a rustling noise coming from the closet. Its nothing. Its your imagination. But, no, she could hear it clearly, a rustling, and then a dull thud. Like that time in the forest. Sometimes parts of inner dialogue are italicised for emphasis. She stood up and took a step toward the closet, then paused. It was ridiculous to go look in the closet; there was nothing there, nothing. But now the closet door began to open, very slowly. Oh no. Oh no, its happening again.

You dont want to overdo the use of italics, though, or that can become annoying for the reader. If you look at the novel on your bookshelves, you can probably find a number of other strategies for presenting inner dialogue.

Have a wonderful time inside your characters head.