My story is contemporary, set in the UK and centres around a young guy and his friends, so you know that means load of mobile phone action! :D
That will include some text messages. I'll minimise the number of them I actually put in, most likely paraphrasing instead, like: 'Matt got a text message from Phil to say they were in Starbucks', or whatever.
But it's likely that a few times I'll want to put the actual text of the text message in there. So is there a standard for formatting that? Should it be in quotes? Indented? Italic? What about the punctuation?
So this for instance:
----
Matt replied to Phil.
Be there in 15
He jumped in the car and headed out.
----
So what should the "Be there in 15" have to set it off as a text message?
If the character doesn't include a full stop/period at the end of his message, should I put one anyway? Should I somehow indicate it's outside of the message?
Thanks in advance!
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50,930 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2008 - 09 41
In sticky situation like this, I always go back to an old Microsoft Word friend: ITALICS.
Italics are a nice way to say "hey, this is different than the regular text." And from the context of the sentence (i.e. "Matt replied to Phil" or may I suggest "Matt texted back to Phil"), the readers should be able to figure it out.
All uppercase letters can work, too, if your computer is weird about italics.
Good luck!
-NoNamer
----------Geeky book reviews: http://themodernreader.blogspot.com
14,009 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2008 - 13 30
I usually see authors put text messages or e-mails in bold. Or indent them, or put them in a different font. I think it's just a matter of personal preference. As for punctuation, I would probably add it in, but I don't think that excluding something like a period at the end of a sentence would be that big of a deal. Again, it's probably just personal preference.
----------60,015 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2008 - 00 29
Thanks, guys. Heh, it's probably one of those little things that gnaws at me and nobody else will care. As long as it's consistent and clear then whatever I choose will probably be fine.
10,571 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2008 - 06 02
I don't know if you can do this for any posted excerpts, but I would go with another font, like Courier New instead of italics. If you need to use italics for anything else (like thoughts) it can get confusing and the Courier fonts have a more typewriter/computer feel to the them.
----------'05 - Beast In the Blood
'06 - Summoner
'07 - Beast In the Blood pt2
'08 - Blood and Ambrosia
60,015 / 50,000
Okt 7, 2008 - 08 42
Ooh, nice idea. I wonder what the name of the font is they actually use for text messages on mobile. I suppose it depends on the model. Good idea though, I'll try a couple of things when I get to that point and see what I like best.
33,097 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2008 - 06 56
what might be a good idea is not to write complete words;
b there n 15
----------Aiyla
nano 2007: Best Kept Secret
nano 2008: The Willow Basket
60,015 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2008 - 10 18
what might be a good idea is not to write complete words;
b there n 15
Good point. Not everyone writes grammatically correct text messages the way I do. ;-)
82,396 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2008 - 10 21
what might be a good idea is not to write complete words;
b there n 15
Good point. Not everyone writes grammatically correct text messages the way I do. ;-)
If you do this I will personally hunt you down and kill you ;)
----------Title: Breaking Light
Goal: Finishing this novel. (Probably be 100k-120k at this rate.)
Sanity level: Do you even need to ask?
35,757 / 50,000
Okt 9, 2008 - 05 50
I'd center it in a column in the middle of the page, about the width of a cell phone screen, and use a font that replicates your phone's font.
----------><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><>
2004: Unday: WON -- 2005: Fortune's Fool: WON -- 2007: Hench: WON 2008: The Wey of Dolor -- 26k
60,015 / 50,000
Okt 9, 2008 - 06 57
what might be a good idea is not to write complete words;
b there n 15
Good point. Not everyone writes grammatically correct text messages the way I do. ;-)
If you do this I will personally hunt you down and kill you ;)
Hey, it's my characters not me! :D Don't worry, if there's any of that kind of thing it will be very brief. There won't be any txt spk conversations going on for pages at a time, I promise!
25,387 / 50,000
Okt 9, 2008 - 12 14
I like the idea of indenting and using a Courier font.
----------50,560 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2008 - 07 36
Good point. Not everyone writes grammatically correct text messages the way I do. ;-)
Hahaha, I write grammatically correct text messages too! I can't help it. I'm sorry, I just don't want to be seen as stupid because I decided 2 tlk lk ths n my txt.
----------NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)
NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)
NaNo 2008: Sunny Side Up (romantic comedy drama thing)
11,686 / 50,000
Okt 17, 2008 - 23 12
My novel is going to center around text messaging and I'm just going to put mine in quotations so I don't have to waste time with a bunch of formating. I'm also a grammatically correct texter so all my characters will be talking like they have some sense in their text messages, which may take away from the realism...but I just can't help it.
51,515 / 50,000
Okt 18, 2008 - 15 19
My story coming out in March has a part that involves text messaging. When I wrote it I put it in bold font, and yes- I used short cut writing because that's what my characters would have used.
No periods that the end of the sentence
New line for each text
Occasionally I had a dialogue tag in there as well, They were in normal print followed by the text quote.
I liked how it looked and it sure made it clear to me that it was text mes.
My editor has changed it from bold font to italics. No quotes. I guess that's the standard with that publisher.
So do what you want that looks good to your eye.
Vivian Arend
Where Dreams Become Reality
----------http://vivarend.blogspot.com/
http://vivianarend.com
Vivian Arend
Where Dreams Become Reality
http://vivarend.blogspot.com/
http://vivianarend.com