Text messaging dialogue

There is no rule. If what you've written above is how you are most comfortable doing so, then go with that.

I have some IM chat dialogue in my novel, and I did find that it was trickier than real-life conversation because you're trying to convey both your characters' motivations and the actual way they would IM/text it.

I solved the difference between text/IM and conversation by introducing the conversation as IM (in your case text), and then just detailing it back and forth as-is on a chat.

I intended to provide an excerpt of my work here, but I realized that all of the names out of context were more confusing than helpful ...

You can do it however feels right to you. If you sell the novel, the publisher will have the typographer design it anyway. SO as long as it's clear it's an IM, you're fine.

I did a text message once, and I just used a different font to separate it from the rest. The novel "Crash Into Me" has extensive online chat as part of the story, so you might see how he did it for some idea. And of course, Lauren Myracle has two series that are all texting and online.

One thing to keep in mind, it that people use shorthand for texting. Proper English is going to look odd, since almost no one actually textes that way. But you also don't want it to be so slangy that folks can't read it.

My agent made me change the fonts from regular dialogue to specify if it were a text or a phone call.

My antagonist uses text messaging to stalk my protaganist in chpt 1. Also I use it a text message as a clue to his disappearance - i.e time he goes missing is altered by a text sent to his parents.

Personally I write in grammatically correct English, but that's how I text. Not sure about text speak in novels. I would toss a book that started doing that, having to stop and decipher text-speak.

As long as you've established how they communicate, the tags are supposed to be transparent. Whether it's "he said" or "he typed" is irrelevant at that point. Pay more attention to what is actually being said/typed.


Ding. He looked at his phone and saw a new text message: "LOL come ovr!"
"Now?" He replied.
"b here 15 mins or ib gone."
"k b right there."

I also have a text messaging in my novel, I original just had it as a string of back and forth text..
'Hey R U there?"
Not yet..."
K I'll be wait for you at the back door' (this is just for example purposes)

and one of my beta's told me it reads boring and that I should turn it into more of a dialouge, with a different font and an obvious "they are texting" opening.

Lahna felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, she fished it out and opened it. She read the text with a huge grin on her face 'Date tonight?'
She tried to contain her excitment as she let her fingers glide over the keys, pushing the the numbers so a string of letters floated on the screen. When she was done she pressed send and the text 'Definetly, when and where?' was sent to Gavin. (again for example purposes, so I am sure there is mistakes in here lol)

I found it read so much better, it's a good way to show what's going on and not just tell with a string of texts.

kal-el said:

Please help. I have two scenes in my 3rd person limited novel where there is a text conversation between my protagonist and his friend's girlfriend.

I know exactly what I want the text messages to say and how to say it, but I'm not sure about the way in which to do it. There are about 15 text messages sent by both characters in both scenes, so would this be written in a similar way to normal dialogue?

Do I just write something like the following:

"Miles opened the message, it was Justine! 'Miles, I've been thinking about you, and I don't want Steven to find out'

He replied with a trembling hand, 'No, he will never find out'."

And so on and so on? Does anyone have any knowledge of how to write text conversations?


Thanks.

Click to expand...

Fine except for the first line could be punctuated better:
'Mick opened the message. It was Justine:
"omg kkkk"'