Is Anyone Good At Grammar?

[Tobermory]

I prefer the way you’ve done it. The purpose of punctuation is to help the reader move smoothly through the text and subconsciously decode meaning more easily. The use of italics to represent internal monologue does that perfectly. The combination of quotation marks and italicized words actually interrupts the flow for me.

 

[Mer.kitten]

Thanks!

 

[segelkatt]

I'm glad English is not my native language. We have "run-on" sentences galore and sentences within sentences with several verbs ending up at the end of the whole thing and we even speak that way. When I first read Jane Austin novels (in English) I found a writer who writes and talks like we do. I have heard people say that they find reading her style of writing is exhausting which to me was mo problem at all. Then I read a few novels by a writer from the 1700s in my language and found HIM exhausting because he wrote like Jane Austin on steroids. Just goes to show that language does change and in a rather short time. Anyone who watched Downton Abbey would agree and it's not just because of the very proper English pronunciation. Anyone who has read some of my posts would also find that I write in "run-on" sentences although I try very hard not to do that.
If it sounds good why would you care about the grammar? Only some high school teacher would care.

 

[rgwanner]

I think if there are italicized thoughts frequently throughout the story then there is no need to clarify. If this technique is used infrequently then clarifying makes more sense.