How To Write Telepathy http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594 ahniemann In my story there are a race of dragons that can only communicate through telepathy. How do I write them speaking to each other and humans? Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:54:15 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094372 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094372 larelmian As an avid reader of science-fiction and fantasy, I can tell you there is no standard way of writing telepathy. Some use &lt; &gt; instead of quotation marks. Some use dashes. -This is telepathy.- Or italics. Or bold. Or quotation marks and italics. Or ordinary quotation marks and they indicate in the text that it's telepathic. Or nothing at all. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:10:50 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094406 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094406 ahniemann I was considering using quotation marks and italics, but I wasn't sure if it would be the right way. But now I think I'll definitly use it! Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:32:27 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094455 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094455 keolah I'd say it depends on how prevalent telepathy is in your story. If it's fairly uncommonly used, using a method that stands out is appropriate. (such as italics or italics + quotation marks.) However, if there's going to be quite a bit of it, I wouldn't want to read pages after pages that are half italics... that defeats the point of setting it apart. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:55:32 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094714 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094714 Bookworm140 I agree with keolah on this. I also avoid lots and lots of italics. If it's constantly switching back and forth, it does get irritating, and you do not want to irritate readers. If there is going to be a lot of dialogue with the dragons, you might just make it clear now and then that they only speak with telepathy and forget the italics. If it's only going to be occasionally, the italics would be okay. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:06:46 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094719 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1094719 ahniemann Bookworm140 and keolah, I'll keep that in mind. Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:10:02 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1096785 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1096785 FreakierThanThou I try a single quote and italics. '<em>This is telepathy</em>'. If I just use single quotes by themselves 'like this' it's easy to confuse with regular dialogue written "like this", and I've found in other books that use italics alone that it bothers me when I can't tell if it's emphasis or someone responding to someone else's thoughts. He's <em>really</em> dumb can be either Jack thinking that someone's really dumb, or Jack thinking that someone's dumb an telepath!Jill adding that he's really dumb. And, of course, "he thought" or "she said telepathically" after every line of telepathic dialogue is really damn annoying. I've seen the alternative to quotation marks &lt; where this &gt; -or this- :or this: mean telepathy. (I think I saw the colon in some of Mercedes Lackey's writing, coupled with italics, but it's been a while.) And I read a graphic novel once where telepaths communicated in a different font. Since they're dragons, maybe they speak in bold? Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:13:02 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1105602 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1105602 Earthsick I wouldn't temper too much with the format too much if I were you. It gets confusing. By the way, if it's clear anyway that your dragons can ONLY use telepathy, why not just stick with normal dialogue tags? It's their way of speaking after all, and if it's clear to the reader then you wouldn't have problems anyway. Just because it's telepathy, doesn't mean it's not a dialogue. If they were talking with their mouths AND by using telepathy, now that would be a whole different matter. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:14:30 +0000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1109184 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/writing-101/threads/49594?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1109184