all-caps and repeated letters?

[GrushaVashnadze]

In Another Place, the Powers-That-Be intensely dislike the use of all-caps or repeated letters. They regard such things as pornographic, and inappropriate to "proper" writers. Better to use descriptors, they say.

I must admit, I like all caps, and repeated letters. Sometimes they are the perfect way to express anything loud or out-of-control - e.g. anger, ecstasy, orgasm etc. J.K. Rowling uses all caps, as does Terry Pratchett, and George Orwell. Some of the best smut writers I know use them. Some of them make a positive art-form out of such things.

Why not just use descriptors? Well, you can - and sometimes this works very well. But I like, when possible, to show rather than tell. Expressing the "music" of a character's speech, i.e. its rhythm, its resonance, its weight, its pacing, through unconventional orthographies, can save unwieldy descriptive vocabulary, especially at a moment of high drama in a story, or a sexual climax. It conveys the subtleties of how that character is feeling, without too much narrative intrusion. "I'm c-c-cccoming" is completely different from "I'm cominnnnnng..." from "'M COMIIIIING!!!" Read them out loud, and they make you feel different - in a way that narrative description can struggle to achieve.

Yes, it's pornographic. But we are writing porn, aren't we? Porn is "the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement". Whether we describe our stories as porn, or erotica, or smut, and whatever our personal stylistic preferences, it's all about fucking. There are different literary styles available to us pornographers, some more appropriate to certain contexts than others. But these different styles lie on the same spectrum. They can work in partnership, rather than opposition.

Well, that's what I think. What do others think?

 

[KeithD]

I do it too occasionally. Usually when I want to convey frenzy/immediacy. Anything in moderation is fine, I think.

 

[Paul_Chance]

In moderation, as dialogue, it can be useful. I personally find it lazy and would agree by saying "use your words" LOL.

As for other places - write to the standard of your publisher (including online free sites). If you can't write to the standard they're asking and won't change your style, then don't publish there.

 

[mantonrichards]

What? Pornography you say? Here?

Yeah, it's all part of the writers toolkit. How else are we to describe the many and varying degrees of emotion. We want our readers to feel something, after all. Sometimes, out of the blue, ALL CAPS has an impact like no other.

 

[Stimtheone]

They can be used in both dialogue and narration. But use them sparsely. The point is to attract attention. If every inch of a building is covered in ads, you stop seeing all of them.

A word written in all caps can show a sudden accent upon it as a shift in tone, a sentence evocates that it has much more power behind it. Terry Pratchett does have Death write in ALL CAPS OUTSIDE OF DIALOGUE but when it is done every time, he stops being the ominous death and starts just being this constant of impassive tone. Shouting has power only when you do it ever so often. When a baby cries the first time, you are worried. When he does it every waking hour you are annoyed. Don't cry wolf if there is none.

But go ahead and use them. This sort of things adds color to a story. I regret at times not spending some time to format things for this website. Such things like bolded text or italics can stand out.

 

[jehoram]

ALL CAPS is kind of like garlic. In very small quantities, garlic enhances the flavor of some foods. Overused, it obliterates all the other flavors and stuns the taste buds.

 

[ElectricBlue]

All caps? Very, very rare, but I think I may have written STOP once or twice. Repeating letters have a place, for example: mmmm, fuu...ckk, ohhh, but I never use more than four letters (or try not to).

Like all stylistic quirks, in moderation works better than overkill.

 

[nice90sguy]

I used them a lot in my humor and satire stories, where they belong.

 

[Trionyx]

If you’re using multiple letters, make sure the word ‘sounds’ normal. Take, for example, the word fuck, which ends with a hard consonant. Fuuuuck sounds like someone naturally drawing out the word while fuckckck, fuccckkk or fuckkkk don’t sound natural at all as one doesn’t repeat the hard consonant sound in normal speech.
I agree with EB; moderation in all things, well, at least when writing.

 

[SimonDoom]

Sure, as long as you don't do it too much. If you do it excessively then it loses its punch, and it seems sloppy.

It depends on the tone of the story, as well. It's probably better used in a comic story or adventure tale, as opposed to a serious romance.

 

[Bazzle]

I use repeating letters, as most of my characters are raving drunk...

Sooo, I gets allshorts of smellinggggs. as mys characters trips up over the words.

But they dont tend to shout in passion needing capitals.

I might use capitals in the "narration" to emphasis something, but then italics works too.

B

 

[Zenith77]

Right across the page or go home. There's nothing that says 'hot sexy story' more than the word 'cumming' [sic] with 382 letters in caps.

 

[Bazzle]

Right across the page or go home. There's nothing that says 'hot sexy story' more than the word 'cumming' [sic] with 382 letters in caps.

Within the first two lines of the story.

 

[Zenith77]

Within the first two lines of the story.

You wouldn't need to read any further, would you?

 

[Bazzle]

You wouldn't need to read any further, would you?

"Our sexy protagonists with 200GG breasts opens the door, looks at you, then open her mouth to say hello then CUuuuuuuuuuMmmmmmmms"

 

[Zenith77]

"Our sexy protagonists with 200GG breasts opens the door, looks at you, then open her mouth to say hello then CUuuuuuuuuuMmmmmmmms"

Oh god that's so hot. I think we can pack away Literotica now. This can't be surpassed.

Unless....

"Our sexy protagonist with 201GG breasts opens the door, looks at you, opens her mouth to say hello then CUuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuMmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmms"

Yeah. NOW we've broken it.

 

[Rustyoznail]

All caps? Very, very rare, but I think I may have written STOP once or twice. Repeating letters have a place, for example: mmmm, fuu...ckk, ohhh, but I never use more than four letters (or try not to).

Like all stylistic quirks, in moderation works better than overkill.

Unless you're writing about a soccer commentator.

GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ronde]

I only use all caps to denote signage, such as "the sign on the building said HOTEL", or in descriptions that are normally all caps like acronyms or sizes such as DD or XXL. If I want to express loud or excited speech, I use an exclamation point - one and only one. I hate trying to read, "Fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I do use duplicate letters in dialog because it's a good way to portray accents or drawn out speech. When doing this, I think it's important for readability to repeat the letters in a syllable that would normally be accented. If I wanted to accent "coming", I'd write " cummming", not "cumiiiing". For single syllable words, I'd repeat the vowel, as in "Waaay" instead of "wayyyyy".

I use hyphens only to indicate stuttered speech.

 

[Britva415]

If the writing is good enough, the reader can hear "coming!" as CUUUUMMMIIIINNNNGGGG and can hear "Oh fuck!" as OOOOOHHHH FUUUuuUuUUuUuUUCKCKCKCKCKC!!11!

 

[Bramblethorn]

Unless you're writing about a soccer commentator.

GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian Blessed for the audiobook version.

 

[Djmac1031]

you’re using multiple letters, make sure the word ‘sounds’ normal. Take, for example, the word fuck, which ends with a hard consonant. Fuuuuck sounds like someone naturally drawing out the word while fuckckck, fuccckkk or fuckkkk don’t sound natural at all as one doesn’t repeat the hard consonant sound in normal speech.

A good "fffffuck" can work well; people can and do draw out the F.

But otherwise wholeheartedly agree lol. "Fuckkk" just looks like someone hit the K key too many times. Or the character stutters.

 

[Britva415]

A good "fffffuck" can work well; people can and do draw out the F.

But otherwise wholeheartedly agree lol. "Fuckkk" just looks like someone hit the K key too many times. Or the character stutters.

Totally, "fuckkkkkk" is unpronounceable. You can't say someone said that.

 

[Djmac1031]

Easy rule of thumb: if it looks ridiculous in writing, it's probably ridiculous to read.

Emphasis is one thing, over exaggeration another.

"I'm cumming!!!" Is great. A few extra exclamation points sell the excitement well.

"I'm cummmmmiiiing!" - it's okay. Annoying, but not terrible.

"I'M CCCCUMMMINGGG!" - Stop. Just don't.

 

[GrushaVashnadze]

Totally, "fuckkkkkk" is unpronounceable.

Unless you're Scouse (Liverpudlian), in which case it's both pronounceable and very sexy.

 

[KeithD]

"I'M CCCCUMMMINGGG!" - Stop. Just don't.

Actually, "I'm CCCMMMINGGG!" would be best (not using full caps until the release word), isolating where the transition begins.

But, yes, there's a place to use this as well. I don't know why folks keep trying to hedge in the use of fiction that just isn't going to cooperate with that.

If I'm just emphasizing a word/phrase, I'll use italics, but if I want to show immediacy and high-emotion frenzy, I'll feel free to use all caps. Erotica is meant to pull arousal out of the reader, not win a Pulitzer Prize.