This is usually the go-to use for italics. When you want a word to stand out, you use italics to show there's a little more force on that word. The best example of how emphasis can change meaning is in this sentence:
"I never said she stole the money"
Depending on what word you put in italics, the sentence totally changes meaning. In order, that is:
Spoiler
I= Saying somebody else said that never= Flat denial said= Implied she stole the money without using speech she= The speaker said somebody else stole it stole= It wasn't theft, it was something else the= Not the money the accuser is referring to money= She stole something else
Thoughts
If you are writing a character's thoughts (or telepathy) out as if you're writing dialogue, then you use italics. Example:
My brother is such a brat, she thought, picking up the remnants of his latest prank.
(Or, this also works: She picked up the remnants of her brother's latest prank. He is such a brat.)
Flashbacks
If you're showing a short flashback, under a few paragraphs, then put the whole thing in italics. If it's longer, say ten or more, then you'll probably want to only put italics at the beginning or end to show the transition from "present" to "past" and back.
And there you have your three main reasons for using italics.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo
Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
You also use italics when naming a long work, like a book or movie. On the internet, people tend to use quotation marks around all titles instead since it's easier to format, but in formal writing, especially in work you would like published, long works = italicized titles and short works = quotation marks.
Examples: The Great Escape (movie), A Farewell to Arms (novel), "The Things They Carried" (short story)
Another thing to note: you don't have to use italics for thoughts. Some books I've read like Jill Mansel's Two's Company and Jeffrey Archer's Harry Clifton series sticks to normal letters. The trick is to not use thoughts to much, and make them simple.
When using foreign words in your piece, you can use italics, depending if you want to distinguish them with the rest of the words. However, some writers don't do that as they feel it gives too much attention to the italicized words, and rather type them in normal letters to integrate them to the story and make them equal with others.
"Writing, though, belongs first to the writer, and then to the reader, to the world.
The subject is a catalyst, a character, but our responsibility is, has to be, to the work."
Don't aim at success--the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. — Viktor E. Frankl
