Italics

I've just been reading Hit Me, by Lawrence Block. At page 37, I found this useful example of direct and indirect internal thought and the use of italics.

It [killing two people] would be over before they knew it, almost before he knew it.

            Go on, he thought. Don’t just stand there. You know what you’re supposed to do. So why aren’t you doing it.

            Maybe there was a better way.

As you can see, when Block wants to create the interior equivalent of direct speech he uses italics. And he treats it the same way using present tense and setting it off in a new paragraph. He attributes the words by saying, "he thought," which may not be strictly necessary, but using it here avoids confusing the reader. If there was further direct interior thought later, the attribution might not be necessary

In contrast, the last line is indirect thought. He's not directing a comment to himself.

For a fuller discussion of this topic, see Marcus Trower's blog at http://marcustrowereditor.com/page/3/

Last thing: Note use of italics for emphasis in Block's first line: before he knew it.

P.S. This use of italics caught my eye. It's John Sandford in Winter Prey (at page 90 of the paperback). It comes within a conversational exchange.

Dammit. "So you could only see his body?"

It is a nice tight way of showing what went on Davenport's mind compared to what he said. On the next page there is a more traditional use of italics.

If the hair didn't strike him as gross, then the guy was probably a blond, Lucas thought. Black hair on cheap [photographic] paper would blot. "If it wasn't very good, could you be sure it was Jim?" Lucas asked.

In this example he attributes the thought and question by words rather than inference.