Should thoughts be enclosed in quotation marks?
'Busy lady,' I thought.
OR
Busy lady, I thought.
I'm sure I've read the answer to this somewhere but I can't for the life of me think where.

Thanks
PC

I always do it the second way:

Busy lady, I thought.

But I notice my copy-editor has changed the thoughts to italics:

Busy lady, I thought.

I bet it's one of those house style things that is done differently in different places.

I've never used quotation marks and not normally italics either, and my copy editors have never queried it.

I do use italics if a person, in their thoughts, is repeating something they or someone else has said, e.g.

I was only thinking of you. Yeah, right, course you were, thought Susan.

Rosy

I hadn't thought of that, Rosy! Let me check when italics have been used...

Ah, I only have one example of this in my whole book. Maybe that's why she used italics - it isn't typical of my character's voice. Here it is with the words changed (because it was a spoiler - as if anyone cares!)

I'm thinking, What's going on here?

Thanks Louisa and Rosy. I'll leave it without quotes.

PC

No quotes, nowadays. Generally, I wouldn't use italics, though it does depend a bit on context, and on the voice. I can see why a copy-editor might change it, though I've not had it done to me. (I do use italics when the narrator is remembering something someone said earlier.)

Emma