Excellent feedback, sugar.
Thanks! ::wipes brow:: I was afraid you might think I was being too much of a hardass and wouldn't send me anymore to read. And that would have been a bad thing.
Lydia: Its removal from Burma is a felony and when triggered it has the power to melt human eyeballs.
Giles: In that case I've severely underpriced it.
'Potential'
The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
SailAweigh - May 27, 2006 8:58:27 am PDT #6807 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
deborah grabien - May 27, 2006 8:58:30 am PDT #6808 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
Erin, I need mine - I use them a lot in Haunted Ballads, to show where the voice being used is an excerpt from a manuscript or song snippet, or when one of the characters is hearing something supernatural.
If I had to underline all those, I'd run screaming; I'd find it unreadable.
But yep, if you're italicising as emphasis, that's a whole nother ball of wax.
Strix - May 27, 2006 9:04:15 am PDT #6809 of 10001
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
Oh, no, Sail. I don't want "Ohmigod, it was all great! Perfect! You are a goddess!"
Well, yeah, that's what I'd like, but not what I need, ya know?
Underlining? That what you do to book titles on a works cited page. Pffftt.
Topic!Cindy - May 27, 2006 9:05:15 am PDT #6810 of 10001
What is even happening?
But yep, if you're italicising as emphasis, that's a whole nother ball of wax.Yes. I use itals a lot online, because I think of posts as conversation.
In formal writing, italics-for-emphasis feel like another violation of the show-don't-tell rule. They're telling the reader where the word emphasis should be, when truly, word choice and arrangement are (I think) the better way to convey emphasis.
(Or maybe that's just me, but I don't think so.)
deborah grabien - May 27, 2006 9:11:41 am PDT #6811 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
Heh. Cindy, I agree, but once in a while, I end up with a specific character who has a specific pattern of speech, and sometimes, the itals work. There was general agreement - especially from my editor, thank goodness - that the quirky emphasised speech was part of what made Charlotte Leight-Arnold so damned vivid.
Typo Boy - May 27, 2006 9:15:04 am PDT #6812 of 10001
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
Hmm non-fiction question. You are listing the following in a single paragraph : a book title, a journal title and an organization name. This is followed by an extended quote. (This is for blurbs. I'm giving evidence that the person I'm about to quote is an expert, then quoting them saying my book is the cat's pajamas - only not in those words thank dog.)
Extended quote needs to be italicized, yes?
So do I use underlines for organization, book and journal titles?
Topic!Cindy - May 27, 2006 9:15:49 am PDT #6813 of 10001
What is even happening?
Heh. Cindy, I agree, but once in a while, I end up with a specific character who has a specific pattern of speech, and sometimes, the itals work. There was general agreement - especially from my editor, thank goodness - that the quirky emphasised speech was part of what made Charlotte Leight-Arnold so damned vivid.That's true. I didn't mean that as a hard and fast rule, just a rule of thumb.
I'm extra conscious of it lately, because I find myself breaking it all the time, thanks to poor habits I've developed on the internet.
I feel less committed to the rule of thumb in dialogue, than in the narrative. I was mostly thinking of the "for-emphasis" italics in narrative.
Hil R. - May 27, 2006 9:16:05 am PDT #6814 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
With me, I just have trouble reading long italics sections -- the words look too different for me to sight-read, or something. When I'm reading something that has more than a sentence or so at a time in italics, I'll frequently just give up rather than trying to wade through it. (If something in the book has interested me already, I'll work through it, but it's a pain. There was some book I picked up that had come highly recommended, but it started with an entire chapter in italics, and I just could get far enough into it to figure out whether I liked it or not.)
Sophie Max - May 27, 2006 9:21:28 am PDT #6815 of 10001
delurk
There was some book I picked up that had come highly recommended, but it started with an entire chapter in italics, and I just could get far enough into it to figure out whether I liked it or not.)
Was it Empire Falls? I almost didn't get past that first chapter either. I did eventually find it worthwhile, but entire chapters in italics are HARD to read. I do fine with the occasional paragraph.
Hil R. - May 27, 2006 9:25:09 am PDT #6816 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Was it Empire Falls? I almost didn't get past that first chapter either.
No. That one, I struggled with, but I'd seen the movie already and wanted to see how the book played out. The one I couldn't get through was -- damn, what was it called? From a few years ago, about the guy looking for his roots in Poland, his family was mostly killed in the Holocaust, and the italics sections were all first-person narration from the tour guide, so in addition to italics it was totally off syntax -- what was that book called? I can picture the cover, but not the title.