The Lost Lurker sayeth:

So please...if you respect yourself as a writer, if you respect your
potential readers as possibly intelligent human beings, segue subtly into a
flashback. Don't try to bludgeon your reader with the fact that you are
about to cut to a flashback. They know. If they don't know, then they're
stupid, and that's their problem and not yours.

SPEAKING* of which...

I have a similar problem with inane keys like this:

   " "   spoken
   ' '   quoted
   * *   sound
  ({ })  flatulance

ESPECAILLY the first item. I mean, c'mon! The double (and single) quotes
are _standard delimiters_ of speech (and quoted stuff is simply the quote
that is not used for direct speech).

People, we do have a natural ability to decipher complex syntactic forms.
It is trivially easy to glork the meaning of words and structures from
context. Like there, see? That's why I don't put keys (at least now)
indicating that /* */ indicate thoughts. Its usually clear from context:

  /* I should have known better than to trust Gourry to fix the wheel-
  barrow! */ thought Lina as she looked upon the broken treasure-transport
  device with chagrin.

That was pretty clear, wasn't it?

Still, since there's no standard delimiter for thought, you might feel
justified to make a key for _that_. However, don't say that " " means
speech in the key, because that standard had been laid down
loooooooooooooong ago. So please do not insult the intelligence of thy
readers by telling them that " " means speech, huh?

---
* no smart remarks from the penut gallery, please!

                           ---------------------
##   ## ##   ## #######  ##   ##  AKA Tom Jefferys, Time Lord for Hire
##   ##  #   #   ##   ## ### ###      "Have TARDIS; Will Travel."
## # ##   ###    #####   ## # ##  Wielder of ANVIL and SPAM!
### ###    #     ##  ##  ##   ##     [ Will code for food! ]
##   ##   ###   ###   ## ##   ##_of_UT haunts <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu>
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"What kind of stupid alien escapes in a car?!"
                                     -- Kizuki Mitsuha, Silbuster ch.1