A character recalls past conversation... (stylistic?)

unthoughtknown · May 10, 2006

Hi all,

Imagine a character is recalling a conversation from the past, and you want to bring snippets of that conversation into the character's present line of thought. Do you italicise it? Or do you just use standard quote marks and don't italicise it? Example below:

John was bored as hell. He remembered the time he stuffed the torn, fluffy bunny with red cellophane, and how he'd held a conversation with the toy itself, "Bunny, you betrayed me."
"You brought it on yourself!"
"You wanted to be stuffed!"
"But I'm a bunny!"
John did think to use blue cellophane instead of red. But now he looked at the burnt bunny on top of the vanity and cried out, "Bunny, I love you!"

John was bored as hell. He remembered the time he stuffed the torn, fluffy bunny with red cellophane, and how he'd held a conversation with the toy itself: Bunny, you betrayed me.
You brought it on yourself!
You wanted to be stuffed!
But I'm a bunny!
John did think to use blue cellophane instead of red. But now he looked at the burnt bunny on top of the vanity and cried out, "Bunny, I love you!"

Saw Stephen King do it the second way in It, so I'm curious.

unthoughtknown · May 10, 2006

That's NOT from my WIP btw. Hehe.

Perks · May 10, 2006

I'm a fan of italics. I know that isn't necessarily a popular stance, but in this case I think it is good shorthand.

bsolah · May 10, 2006

I'd do it the second way, but still put the words in quotation marks.

BuffStuff · May 10, 2006

In this case I'd definitely use the italics, provided the snippets of past conversation are short. Reason being that the italics help for clarity's sake. Gentle reader will not be confused at all as to what was a past snippet in a present scene/line of thought. At times the reader's eyes can do funny things on them (it's late at night, they'd been reading for awhile, etc) and the separate past snippet could stand a chance of momentarily blending in with the character's current line of thought. Then they'd have to re-read the paragraph and momentarily disrupt their flow.

reph · May 10, 2006

I like the way italics work for the bunny conversation, but that one's special because it wasn't a real conversation the first time, at least the bunny's part of it (John may have spoken his lines out loud). Italics are appropriate because the whole thing took place in John's thoughts. If your character remembers a real exchange, italics might not fit so well. There might also be problems if a dialogue tag or something else that isn't speech is needed within the quoted matter.

____________

John couldn't stop replaying the scenes that had led up to his divorce. Mary always accused him of something.

John, you don't pay attention to me.

What are you talking about? I'm paying attention to you right now.

Well, you didn't visit me in the hospital, not once.

I did too, when we lived in Denver and you had your brains out.

Not that time. I mean when I had the baby.

That wasn't fair. But it wasn't my baby!

Then the phone rang. John hoped it wasn't Mary.

maestrowork · May 10, 2006

I would go with the second way (I guess Stephen King and I do agree on something. LOL) I've done the same thing myself, in a scene in which the protagonist is having a conversation with himself. Instead of using quotation markes, I alternate between normal texts and italics.

unthoughtknown · May 10, 2006

Thanks for everyone's responses!

A character recalls past conversation... (stylistic?)

unthoughtknown

practical experience, FTW

unthoughtknown

practical experience, FTW

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower

bsolah

AW's Resident Commie

BuffStuff

No more being nice to Pee D

reph

Fig of authority

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

unthoughtknown

practical experience, FTW