Interior dialogue -- typeface and punctuation

[SimonDoom]

I have a mechanical question for authors here: how do you like to handle interior dialogue for stories submitted on this site? I've seen it handled in a lot of different ways: through the use of italics, or set off by quotation marks like normal dialogue, or with nothing.

It's somewhat more pertinent on this site because to use italics one must (from what I understand) submit the story in text format and insert html codes for italics. While I might prefer to use italics in another circumstance, I'm somewhat reluctant to do so here for fear I'll screw up the use of the codes.

I generally use no punctuation or special typeface for internal thoughts, but sometimes I use quotation marks.

What about others?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I use the italics along with quotes. The <i>"text"</i> tags are typed as I type. As long as you have both the beginning and the ending tags there is no problem, except...if your sentence crosses a page boundary. But the preview before submission should enable you to catch that.

 

[NotWise]

I rarely use interior dialog. When I did I treated it as a normal quotation and used the tag to indicate that it was the character's thoughts.

 

[sr71plt]

I follow the Chicago Manual of Style guidelines, which permit the internal discourse in double quotes or just Roman font. The guidelines do not sanction use of italics. (CMS 13.41)

A new CMS comes out in September and might change this, as it's not a popular ruling.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It's somewhat more pertinent on this site because to use italics one must (from what I understand) submit the story in text format and insert html codes for italics. While I might prefer to use italics in another circumstance, I'm somewhat reluctant to do so here for fear I'll screw up the use of the codes.

You can write in .doc, creating italics as normal with Ctrl-I, and then submit the doc with a note mentioning the italics. It will then be converted to HTML. (Drawbacks: you can't use the preview, and occasionally the conversion glitches, though it usually works fine.)

Or, you can write in Word, using Ctrl-I italics, and then use search-and-replace to add the HTML tags everywhere they're needed. Zeb posted instructions for how to do this. After that, you can submit in the text box and use preview to confirm, but using S&R reduces the chance of missing bits.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I generally use no punctuation or special typeface for internal thoughts.

Same - no punctuation, no special typeface. I make it clear through context that it's an internal thought, or use a tag - I thought, she thought to herself - for example. Readers figure it out - or at least, never complain.

I find the use of italics actually slows me down when reading, probably because in my other world of business and technical writing, italics are used either for emphasis or to signify a title of a document or tort. In fiction, an internal discourse is neither of those.

 

[Voboy]

I just italicize. I use interior monologue VERY sparingly. Used in just the right amount, it can wake up an entire part of a story; used too much, it's a gimmick.

Also, I tend to write in first person. Some narrators have no use for their inner voices, others do; depends on how the character evolves.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

If I'm writing first person present tense - I don't often, but it's a fun challenge and it hasn't hurt ratings - I just stream them inline with no special markings.

“If you’re going to stand and watch, come out and help.” I don’t need to shout it; you’re not far away.

You hesitate for a long time, but then make your way from the barn. You’re in tight purple jeans and a clean white tee shirt; how you kept clean in that barn is a mystery. If it’s not rust flaking off the pipe I store in the rafters, it’s pigeon shit, or something Willis managed to fling out of his pen. Where a pig learned he can throw something by biting it and tossing his head I don’t know, but the fucker’s aim is improving.

The musing about the barn and pig would have looked odd in italics, and as vast parts of the story are this sort of running commentary, it would have become an unreadable mess.

Contrast this, not present tense. One character is recollecting events, including a psionic conversation with her husband. I needed to draw out the psionic parts, so I used italics, and added names to clarify things.

Kim was a very different proposition. She was tall, pretty, and very self possessed. She assessed Lucio and I, and then settled into the chair, one leg folded up. She was in jeans shorts and a tight top, with cute little boots with a v-notch that made her long legs longer.

This one is a bitch, Lucio mentally-texted me.

Lucio, not every confident, self-assured woman is a bitch.

I know that. But this one is. She’s sitting all curled up in a cute-scared-little-me position, but look at her eyes.

Unfortunately Lucio’s tendency to snap-judge people has no off switch. Unfortunately it’s also usually correct, so he has no reason to stop. He was right about this one, too. She’d already looked me over, decided I was prettier, and flashed me the “we will not be friends” smile. Then she shifted her leg to see if it drew Lucio’s attention. It did, and she smiled at him much more appealingly.

Let me talk to her, I mexted – the only word I’ve come up with for our mental texting.

She doesn’t like you.

Duh. But she’ll spend the whole interview trying to mess with you if you keep her as your focus. I know you’re going to erupt at her at some point. I want that to happen when she doesn’t see it coming.

All yours. Lucio was amused by the idea.

Contrast this, a story that is mostly recollection with occasional self quoting of thoughts, using italics.

"I... not to sound t-too eager, but I'm already... I mean I've had foreplay with you all night in my head." Why the fuck had I told him that?! "The thing with the cologne on your finger... it worked. Oh fuck, did it work..."

Usually I just type something, and if I think it's confusing I'll chose italics or some other trick to delineate the meaning.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'll mention this again -- maybe half of LIT readers use the Android app, which ignores all HTML tags. Forget about boldface, italics, underscores, indents, all that fancy stuff. You can exploit the typeface, throw in Greek or Nordic or math characters, but you must otherwise rely on straight punctuation if you want to reach readers.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'll mention this again -- maybe half of LIT readers use the Android app, which ignores all HTML tags. Forget about boldface, italics, underscores, indents, all that fancy stuff. You can exploit the typeface, throw in Greek or Nordic or math characters, but you must otherwise rely on straight punctuation if you want to reach readers.

I didn't see your having mentioned that before. That's excellent advice. I use that app, but I hadn't noticed that feature of it. There's not much point in using italics if so many people won't be able to see them.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I didn't see your having mentioned that before. That's excellent advice. I use that app, but I hadn't noticed that feature of it. There's not much point in using italics if so many people won't be able to see them.

Um.. you mean there's not much point in using the android app. And I assume they can just open the site in the android's regular web browser, which I assume handles tags normally.

Someone wrote a reader that can't handle the most basic of old-school HTML? What's the point?

 

[lovecraft68]

I'll admit to being totally tech inept, but when people talk about the apps and not functioning...

I have lit bookmarked on my phone through the net. Click the icon it opens and I read...what's the point of an app?

 

[SimonDoom]

Um.. you mean there's not much point in using the android app. And I assume they can just open the site in the android's regular web browser, which I assume handles tags normally.

Someone wrote a reader that can't handle the most basic of old-school HTML? What's the point?

I don't disagree, and I read lit stories on my phone through my browser more often than through my app. Buhit if in fact many lit readers do use the app, then it makes sense to write while mindful of that fact.

 

[SimonDoom]

Um.. you mean there's not much point in using the android app. And I assume they can just open the site in the android's regular web browser, which I assume handles tags normally.

Someone wrote a reader that can't handle the most basic of old-school HTML? What's the point?

The main advantage of the app is that it presents stories in an easy to read typeface size on discrete pages that you swipe through, as opposed to long browser pages in a somewhat smaller typeface that you have to scroll. It's easy to use, but it compromises the functionality of the full site. I use it when all I want to do is read stories by authors I have favorited. Otherwise I use the browser.

 

[Hypoxia]

The main advantage of the app is that it presents stories in an easy to read typeface size on discrete pages that you swipe through, as opposed to long browser pages in a somewhat smaller typeface that you have to scroll. It's easy to use, but it compromises the functionality of the full site. I use it when all I want to do is read stories by authors I have favorited. Otherwise I use the browser.

The app also allows pre-loading ten stories for offline reading, which I find extremely useful. I can (and do) read long serials and interesting authors in decimal chunks as I cavort across the landscape or lay-over in camp, like now. (We're lounging halfway up the slope of an observatory-topped mountain in southeast Arizona.) I prefer the app on tablet to phone but I'll use whatever is at hand. And I expect I'm not the only such consumer on LIT.

 

[sbrooks103x]

I use single quotes for interior dialogue, sometimes along with "he/she thought" if it feels appropriate.