Italicizing Character Thoughts & Punctuation
I’m proof-editing a novella for a client, and I have questions regarding punctuation within italicized character thoughts.
I’m aware character thoughts without an attribution tag, i.e., “he wondered, she mused,” etc., are completely italicized, the punctuation included. For example:
I’ve never hated the man more!
But what about italicized thoughts with an attribution tag? Here’s an example of one at the end of a sentence:
End of the sentence —> It’s hot, she thought.
Or is it —> It’s hot, she thought.
The first example italicizes the comma; the second does not. And how about mid-sentence tags that interrupt?
It’s hot, she thought, and the sun won’t be down for hours.
Or is it—> It’s hot, she thought, and the sun won’t be down for hours.
Obviously, in the mid-sentence interruption example, the second comma isn’t italicized. I did find this resource per the Chicago Manual of Style that sheds light on the mid-sentence example, but no such luck for the end-sentence example. Worse, when I pull the books off my shelf and look, I find inconsistency too. Advice? Many thanks!