Thoughts

Quick question, what is the proper way to encompass characters' thoughts? I've always though it was italics with no quotation marks, but am I wrong?

Varies from book to book, writer to writer. There is no correct way.

The three most popular ways:

-- italics
-- quotation marks
-- nothing.

So we have:

Sureal smiled to himself as he thought, Man, I am so awesome.

Sureal smiled to himself as he thought, 'Man, I am so awesome.'

Sureal smiled to himself as he thought, Man, I am so awesome.

From what I've read, italics or nothing seems to be the most popular way to put a character's thoughts. I've only rarely seen quotations used.

But, like Sureal said, it all depends on your style. Any way will work just fine.

*points at Sureal and magnus's comments*

What they said. I personally like italics best, but any of those ways will work.

I'd just like to point out something with having no tags for thoughts. If you do that, use third person, not first. If you use first person and no tag, then it looks like you've changed tenses without reason, and I personally find that jarring.

Italics are my personal favourite. They're the most commonly used form for showing thoughts, and something about single quotes and nothing to show thoughts at all bothers me slightly.