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  • How do you think?
    by P.J. at 11:16 on 19 December 2007
    In the book I am reading now I came across :- What shall I tell him, I thought. - This always gives me problems, because it suggests we think in sentences. But we don't, do we? I would have used:- I thought what to tell him - or simply - What shall I tell him? Yet this sentence or similar happens frequently in published books. I tried to test myself on this. Just now I looked out of the window and noticed the bird feeders needed filling. I was not aware of actually thinking, Oh,the bird feeders need filling. I hope all this makes sense.
  • Re: How do you think?
    by RT104 at 11:40 on 19 December 2007
    Urg, this is a puzzler. If (as I'm prepared to concede) we frequently only think in non-verbal concepts - or visually, or using our other senses - or by way of an emptional response not formed into words - then how would a novelist ever transmit the inner thoughts of her characters? Surely we have to translate the unformed into words/sentences in order to communicate them on the page?

    Or are you just saying that you don't need to add the tag 'I thought'? If so, I agree.

    Rosy
  • Re: How do you think?
    by EmmaD at 14:04 on 19 December 2007
    Yes, I agree that it sounds awkward here. Might well not be necessary, either, but it depends hugely on the context of the surrounding sentences.

    Emma
  • Re: How do you think?
    by geoffmorris at 23:05 on 20 December 2007
    The 'I thought' is really only there to clarify the action but it's completely unecessary in most cases, as if it's not a line of dialogue and contained within the narrative (particularly in the first person) then it's automatically implied.
  • Re: How do you think?
    by NMott at 13:50 on 21 December 2007
    I see it quite a lot in third person past tense, and especially when there are several povs in the novel.
  • Re: How do you think?
    by chris2 at 17:03 on 21 December 2007
    If you're going for an indirect speech (or thought) approach but find it best to lose the tags, it can be better not to use the words that would have actually been said. So, rather than What shall I tell him, something like What was I going to tell him? or What could I tell him? might be better. These simply suggest the actual words that would be delivered and the fact that they are being 'thought', without the awkwardness of direct speech wording appearing within non-direct-speech text.

    I think there are two reasons why this odd sentence What shall I tell him, I thought sounds wrong. Firstly, the tenses don't agree and they should do in reported speech, e.g. I think I shall go but I thought I should go. So 'What shall I tell him?' I thought (direct) would be OK whereas What should I tell him, I thought (reported) would be better. Secondly, the position of I thought makes it impossible to use a question mark after What shall I tell him. A question without a question mark is always going to be confusing. What, I wondered, should I tell him? would cure that one.

    I hope this isn't being too grammatically pedantic, especially since P.J.'s point wasn't about the construction of the sentence anyway. The question was whether we actually think in verbal/writtent terms. I agree that, except when we're thinking in dialogue, which I know I do sometimes, we don't really think in words - the concepts are just somehow there (as with the bird feeders). But as this is writing the thoughts have simply got to be expressed in words. It doesn't matter because the reader expects it. In a similar way, the actors in a stage play say all kinds of things that would never be expressed in normal dialogue. If they didn't say them, it would be almost impossible for the play to communicate anything useful. The audience accepts the convention that the actors will say things that would normally be thought or be communicated by events or circumstances rather than people.

    I really don't think it's a problem. If we didn't let our characters 'think' things, they could become pretty uninteresting.

    Chris