Text Messaging

[JJA122]

What's your favourite way of denoting dialogue is a text message?

I have seen so far:
Blockquotes,
A hyphen at the beginning of the line,
Italics,
All caps,
Quotes or single quotes, with a speech tag like: his text read.

And lets say, one story has one singular line of text, contrasted with another that has an entire dialogue.

 

[AlinaX]

I texted Fiona: "What do you think?"

Her reply, mere seconds later: "No!!"

I snorted with suppressed laughter. No context or anything, just an immediate emphatic negative. "You're probably right," I replied.

 

[NotWise]

What's your favourite way of denoting dialogue is a text message?

I have seen so far:
Blockquotes,
A hyphen at the beginning of the line,
Italics,
All caps,
Quotes or single quotes, with a speech tag like: his text read.

And lets say, one story has one singular line of text, contrasted with another that has an entire dialogue.

I don't do much. Texting is a common way to communicate, and I don't see a reason to set it apart. I might use a tag like "He texted," something like, "the message read," or maybe "she picked up her phone and rolled her eyes."

 

[ElectricBlue]

- I do email and texts like this. Simple is best, I reckon -

 

[AwkwardMD]

I did it differently.

How so?​

With left and right justifications.

So it looked like real texts?​

Yeah. It was a pain in the ass to make it work, and the
last time the site updated some things some of it
broke.

Still worth it, though.

 

[Haulover]

I did it differently.

How so?​

With left and right justifications.

So it looked like real texts?​

Yeah. It was a pain in the ass to make it work, and the
last time the site updated some things some of it
broke.

Still worth it, though.

These don't work in the Android app - so they might confuse a number of readers.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I’m not sure texting is like verbal conversation. There’s something slight... I dunno, alien? artificial? about it. I have used bold (no quotation marks) for short text chats and think it worked out well.

 

[Voboy]

I've tried a few things, and I'm not terribly satisfied with any of them.

I guess what I do most often is treat it like normal dialogue, but put it into italics. Since that would annoy me as a reader, I include those kinds of conversations sparingly.

When I do phone conversations, I very often just give one side, especially if the speaker we're hearing from feels disconnected (no pun intended) from the person on the other end.

 

[KeithD]

Message text is just quoted text, same as dialogue. Literotica is a "keep it simple" vehicle. Thus, I'd use double quotes and make sure the reader understood it was text messaging in the setup slug for it (Chicago Manual of Style 16, 13.9). I certainly wouldn't mess with flush righting it for Literotica presentation and wouldn't understand what the heck the author meant if they'd tried that and managed it.

 

[AlexBailey]

Here's how I did it:

-----


A minute later Sam gets a message back from his parents. He reads it; "Hi everyone! Hi, Alex! XOXOX"

Sam has Jena take a close up pic of me and him kissing so he can send it home. Seconds later his phone chimes with a new message. He reads it out loud; "It's about time!"

----

 

[Beneaththesurface]

What's your favourite way of denoting dialogue is a text message?

I have seen so far:
Blockquotes,
A hyphen at the beginning of the line,
Italics,
All caps,
Quotes or single quotes, with a speech tag like: his text read.

And lets say, one story has one singular line of text, contrasted with another that has an entire dialogue.

Funny thing this thread just came up. Yukonnights and I just had a conversation via email about how I should do this in a story I’m working on. I’m by no means an expert, actually quite the opposite as a brand new beginner. Anyway this is how I decided to do it, being that I wanted to differentiate the text dialogue from spoken dialogue. I used italics along with a different font and also a tag stating to/from.

As I lie here in the afterglow, my mind switches, Mr. London watched this, Britney watched this. I should be mortified but I’m not, instead it makes me hot again. They must of enjoyed it too or I wouldn’t have got this text. How do I respond to Mr. London and do I tell Devin? All these questions swirl in my mind, what do I do?

Text to Devin: Mr. London just text me this video of us in the rec room.

Video Link – for your viewing pleasure


I need to get to work but I can’t stop thinking about the text and the Londons. My head races, why do I like this? I should feel guilty, dirty but I don’t. I feel sexy and wanted. As I finish showering I hear my phone buzz.

Text from Devin: So fucking hot! Do you like it?

How am I to respond? Will he think I am turned on someway by Mr. London?

Text to Devin: Yes I like it, I wish you were home with me right now, I miss you!

Text from Devin: One more week babe. Did you text him back?


I realize I haven't responded. Should I respond? This is not a good idea, will Devin want this? I battle in my mind, but feel like he will be open to it — after all it was his idea to try new things. Plus, he asked what I replied … so he must want me to send something back. I wish he was here so we could actually talk about this and do it together. What the heck, I'll send Mr. London a message.

Text to Mr.London: Yes, I like to watch but find it a little creepy you are watching too.

Text from Mr. London: Why creepy? I find it extremely hot. I enjoy watching others get off and if I can play any part in that it’s even better.

 

[KeithD]

Literotica presentation isn't going to give you different fonts (or font size, for that matter), I don't think.

 

[KeithD]

Here's how I did it:

-----


A minute later Sam gets a message back from his parents. He reads it; "Hi everyone! Hi, Alex! XOXOX"

Sam has Jena take a close up pic of me and him kissing so he can send it home. Seconds later his phone chimes with a new message. He reads it out loud; "It's about time!"

----

Was the semicolon a typo for a colon? Semicolons don't have this usage.

 

[Beneaththesurface]

Literotica presentation isn't going to give you different fonts (or font size, for that matter), I don't think.

I guess your right, I didn’t think of that while writing on my word doc. Well anyway the text tag would come into play then.

Text to Mr.London: Yes, I like to watch but find it a little creepy you are watching too.

Text from Mr. London: Why creepy? I find it extremely hot. I enjoy watching others get off and if I can play any part in that it’s even better.

 

[SisterJezabel]

I use single quotation marks for text and double for dialogue. I doubt many people notice it, but it works for me. I don't care if it's right or wrong, but I use quite a bit of texting in stories and it's one thing I haven't been pulled up on...yet!

 

[ElectricBlue]

I guess your right, I didn’t think of that while writing on my word doc. Well anyway the text tag would come into play then.

Text to Mr.London: Yes, I like to watch but find it a little creepy you are watching too.

Text from Mr. London: Why creepy? I find it extremely hot. I enjoy watching others get off and if I can play any part in that it’s even better.

I'd get annoyed with the repeated "Text to A" " Text to B" format that you propose here.

I'm not sure why folk make text content so complicated! Too much overthinking, I reckon .

 

[Rustyoznail]

I use single quotation marks for text and double for dialogue. I doubt many people notice it, but it works for me. I don't care if it's right or wrong, but I use quite a bit of texting in stories and it's one thing I haven't been pulled up on...yet!

I do the same, more or less.

Madiha knew by the tone the message was from Neha.

‘Hi, want to go clubbing Saturday? Got a couple of cute guys lined up.’

‘Sorry, my parents are arriving.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry. More for me. ‘

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've been using italics, because I sometimes mix up text messages and speech and it's convenient to have a visual distinction.

 

[Beneaththesurface]

I'd get annoyed with the repeated "Text to A" " Text to B" format that you propose here.

I'm not sure why folk make text content so complicated! Too much overthinking, I reckon .

I can see your point if a story was full of texts between two people. In this particular instance I did it this way because in a scene there happens to be a series of conversations between four characters, so I used the text to/from tag to help differentiate what character was texting who.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Seeing as how I don't text in real life, none of my characters do. In fact if I could turn off the text feature I would. I do block the phone number of any errant texts that come my way. I do answer some with a simple FU if I know it's from the same place with a different phone number.

So no... I don't do text. I do make use of cell 'phones' to make phone calls. But that is just normal dialog, either one sided in first person and they aren't the ones making the call or both sides in the POV is that of the caller or called in first person. In third person you get to hear both side unless the other side id irrelevant.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

I just use plain italics for all text messages, Skypes etc. No quotes or tags.

Keeps things simple and separate from normal quoted speech and is just as easy to follow.

 

[tomlitilia]

I've tried different things, but italics are always a part of it. In the story I'm currently working on, I use this format:

“I’ll let you know what he replies,” she said and walked back to the bedroom. She was still set on a bath, but she barely made it back to the bedroom before her phone buzzed in her hand.

Ben: “The offer certainly stands! Any idea when I might have that pleasure?”

She texted back straight away.

Felicia: “How about tomorrow whenever you have time?”
​

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've tried different things, but italics are always a part of it. In the story I'm currently working on, I use this format:

“I’ll let you know what he replies,” she said and walked back to the bedroom. She was still set on a bath, but she barely made it back to the bedroom before her phone buzzed in her hand.

Ben: “The offer certainly stands! Any idea when I might have that pleasure?”

She texted back straight away.

Felicia: “How about tomorrow whenever you have time?”
​

That works, except for those readers with devices that don't render italics - allegedly those devices exist (although I haven't seen a list).

I used italics in one story to render texts, but the html code went wrong when it went over a Lit page (which of course you can't predict), and completely stuffed up the next page - it in fact toggled the italics the wrong way - sending the whole second page into italics. After submitting an edit to fix that one, I've kept it super simple ever since.

KISS principle always works best, I find. As soon as you get too clever, something breaks. Like your quoted post - I didn't change a thing in it, but my preview renders the whole thing in italics. I wonder what will happen when I submit...

There you go - something broke in the html code, right there.

 

[NotWise]

That works, except for those readers with devices that don't render italics - allegedly those devices exist (although I haven't seen a list).

I used italics in one story to render texts, but the html code went wrong when it went over a Lit page (which of course you can't predict), and completely stuffed up the next page - it in fact toggled the italics the wrong way - sending the whole second page into italics. After submitting an edit to fix that one, I've kept it super simple ever since.

KISS principle always works best, I find. As soon as you get too clever, something breaks. Like your quoted post - I didn't change a thing in it, but my preview renders the whole thing in italics. I wonder what will happen when I submit...

There you go - something broke in the html code, right there.

On this forum, quoted text is always in italics.

 

[ElectricBlue]

On this forum, quoted text is always in italics.

Lol - you're right. I'd completely not registered that.

Which ironically, sort of proves my point - something comes along which renders an author's clever formatting meaningless, and this reader didn't even notice a default over-ride that threw formatting out the door.