Jonathan ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
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.)
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.
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?
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.
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.)
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.
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.
Oh, was it "Everything is Illuminated"? Saw the movie, never read the book. LOVED the movie, but am now a little less inclined to read the book.
Everything is Illuminated
Yep. That one.
OK - having finally got the blurbs I need, I'm finishing my book proposal. So the blurbs about a paragraph each - I guess can just be put in a different font - courier new, since the main proposal is in Times New Roman. And should underline for book titles, journal names and organizations? Or should I mix it up - bold for one italics for another underline for the third? Or italics for all three?