: Re: How to express character thoughts in the third person without using dialogue? I am writing a third person story that focuses on a main character. Sometimes I want to express the internal thoughts

@Nimeshi163

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No special formatting or quotation marks or even textual cues are necessary. Just write the thoughts. It's done this way all the time.

I picked a book at random at Amazon (The Noise of Time, by Julian Barnes) and flipped through until I found an instance of a character thinking.

The overnight case resting against his calf reminded him of the time
he had tried to run away from home. How old had he been? Seven or
eight, perhaps. And did he have a little suitcase with him? Probably
not...

The thoughts are written in third person too, and readers know what they are without any extraneous nonsense explaining what's going on.

Your example is fine as-is, but I think "Her mind immediately flooded with panicked thoughts" is unnecessary.

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