Punctuating dialogue with oneself
I am wondering what the convention is for punctuating dialogue with oneself.
In particular, if a character speaks to himself, do the words need to be put in open and closed quotes? Note that the words in this case are merely the thoughts of the character.
Examples:
How could I be so complacent, Alex said to himself.
I will not give in, Alex told himself.
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"Before I start my reply, I want to point that, afaik, in Portuguese speaking countries, the most common way to delimit dialogues is to use only dashes. The quotation marks are reserved for thoughts and, sometimes, foreign words. I'm answering based on that criteria."
I handle that in my books as a normal dialogues.
– How could I be so complacent? - Alex said to himself.
In the phrase below, maybe it makes more sense to consider it as a thought, but I don't know to context.
"I will not give in." – Alex thought while climbing the mountain. – "I must continue on."
Normally I rule that, if a character expects an answer from himself, he is dialogging with himself, otherwise, he's just toughing about something... But that's only me. You should choose what works better for you.
I guess the answer on quotes, depends on how you think you should deal with the dialogue. If it's a dialogue, don't quote. If it's a thought, quote.
In all written English, dialogue by a character should be quoted as well as any other vocalized words. Ei. the character is talking to himself. Inner dialogue and thoughts should be italicized. The only real difference between dialects should be small punctuation changes, like whether to use single quotes or double.
In most instances thought is presented as italicised text.
If they’re physically talking I’d present it as normal text.
Thought - Damn it, what’s the matter with me? She thought as she closed the door.
Speech - ‘Damn it, what’s the matter with me?’ She cursed as she closed the door.
The Chicago Manual of Style says that "unspoken discourse" can be either in quotations marks or not according to the author's preference.
(Referencing some of the other respondents' contributions, Chicago does mention that in some countries em dashes are used for dialogue. I can only come from an American English perspective on this.)
A good way to bypass this problem altogether is to write thoughts less like dialogue and, well, more like thoughts or urges, fleeting ideas floating through the synapses of the character's brain. Instead of "Joe thought, "I want an apple" write "Joe had a sudden hankering for an apple." Or, referencing your examples:
How could I be so complacent, Alex said to himself.
Alex wondered how he could have been so complacent.
I will not give in, Alex told himself.
Alex told himself not to give in.
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