How do you indicate character’s thoughts in third person limited?

[SonicSouls]

I understand that italics are generally frowned upon in third person limited, but I also want to avoid having to use “he/she/it thought” and variations unless absolutely necessary. Any advice would be very useful. I will take the time to respond to any answers I receive whenever possible. Thanks.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I use italics in 3rd limited - where did you get told it was a problem?

 

[SonicSouls]

I got that from several websites, and I noted that some books didn't use it. Frankly, I found that italics used a lot gets tiring on the eyes. Maybe that's just personal preference. I also questioned the need of using it when you can just use narrative, but write it in the character's voice while using third-person pronouns. However, I've also seen some authors use italics in the third-person. Is it just a stylistic choice? Or is there a generally accepted technique? Thanks.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I got that from several websites, and I noted that some books didn't use it. Frankly, I found that italics used a lot gets tiring on the eyes. Maybe that's just personal preference. I also questioned the need of using it when you can just use narrative, but write it in the character's voice while using third-person pronouns. However, I've also seen some authors use italics in the third-person. Is it just a stylistic choice? Or is there a generally accepted technique? Thanks.

I think you do what feels right for you. For me I mostly go halfway between an internal dialogue and 3rd person.
How long have you been writing? Some of this comes with practice

 

[SonicSouls]

I have been writing on and off for several years but haven't published anything. For the clean version, I had some revelations about writing that got me off my butt and to stop expecting perfection on a first draft. I'm currently several drafts into a novella that will be the start of a dark fantasy series. I came to this site because I wanted to get some feedback. However, I'm unable to do that without a bare minimum of thirty posts. But I think that is good because it means that the community here is truly dedicated to helping. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I don't have an authority to point to, but I typically avoid using italics for internal thought and only put a s/he thought tag in if it isn't entirely obvious that it's a thought. An example:

Joe watched the stranger closely. What is he doing?

 

[SonicSouls]

I agree that I typically avoid italics and typically follow your advice. Thanks.

 

[HareBrain]

I don't have an authority to point to, but I typically avoid using italics for internal thought and only put a s/he thought tag in if it isn't entirely obvious that it's a thought. An example:

Joe watched the stranger closely. What is he doing?

I used to use italics pretty rigidly for direct thought, so:

Joe watched the stranger closely. What is he doing?

Or, especially where the thought was quite long, I'd use reported:

Joe watched the stranger closely. What was he doing?

I tend to use the latter more than the former these days. But also I've increasingly taken to doing direct thought in non-italics. I'm not sure why. I'm not even 100% consistent. I was interested to find that in a favourite book from the 70s I'm reading at the moment, The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, she makes quite a lot of use of direct thought in non-italics. I hadn't noticed that on previous readings. If it's good enough for her...

 

[Steve Harrison]

I'm the same as @HareBrain with direct thoughts; always italics. Doesn't mean it's 'right' or the best way, but it works for me.

 

[tinkerdan]

Italics are fine: however when done well most don't need italics to point them out so I often leave them without italics and without any of the thought tags.

 

[crystal haven]

I also think it depends on the kind of story. I wanted to use italics for telepathic conversation so tried to avoid italics for thoughts.

 

[jd73]

I prefer free indirect speech. It seems a little smoother to go from from regular narration to that and seems to help with maintaining POV too.

 

[Juliana]

I've been using italics for thought, but I don't think I have that many character thought moments and when I do, they aren't long. I think maybe if there were a lot, and they were long chunks of text, it would indeed be tiring on the eyes.

As for how it's used in traditionally published books, maybe it varies depending on house style for each particular press? I know there are slight differences from press to press.