u/thesniperbeggar

The novel I'm working on is basically the narrator looking back all the way from the prologue to the very start of where the story is supposed to begin. Most of the narration is in the present tense; however, at times when the narrator goes off into a monologue to describe his feelings in the situation, emotions, or his sentiments towards a certain character, I was thinking of making that part of the descriptions italicised.

Because at the start of the story, in the prologue, it is also mentioned that the narrator has kept a diary for whatever reason. It's kind of difficult to explain.

BUt should these segments be kept as normal texts, or will turning them to italics make sense? Especially since they often turn to past tense.

For example, let's say a person is narrating their poetry to someone else, or someone wrote it down for them.

In a dialogue, I'll usually go, "She began reciting her poetry."

And then centralise the poetry and make it italic.

In a mostly show-not-tell scenario, how do you integrate a monologue of a character thinking in a first-person narration? Like he's making a decision without it feeling off.

I have written a few manuscripts over the last few years, but whenever I go around to the thought of editing them, I just freeze because of how mentally draining it sounds. I understand the gist of it, remove unnecessary lines, fix grammar, but I just don't know how to make it easier for me... I want to finally publish my works this year, how should I go about it?