Texting

[Lime-Yay]

Is there a proper or preferred way to show texting correspondence? I feel like I have seen a variety of means. Examples appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[JoeySL]

It probably much depends on the overall tone of your story. In my current WIP, I use it much like regular speech, only without with single quotation marks and in italics.

ETA: Looks like this:

Out of earshot she whipped out her phone and texted Loki’s number. ‘We have a situation. Talking dog holding hostages? My brother is there. Call me!’

But I've seen it done like this as well:

I grabbed my phone to text Joey.
Me: What's up?
Joey: Hey.
Me: Don't forget to pick up the cake.
Joey: On it.
...

 

[Lime-Yay]

It probably much depends on the overall tone of your story. In my current WIP, I use it much like regular speech, only without with single quotation marks and in italics.

ETA: Looks like this:



But I've seen it done like this as well:

Thanks, Joey SL. Single quote appears to be the game changer.

 

[Chris P]

I haven't checked any style manuals for several years now, but as of about ten years ago Chicago Manual of Style specified using italics with no quotation marks. This was the practice for quoting written notes for a long time before that, and a text message is really just a written note.

 

[honeynotjam]

I asked the same question of a writing teacher late last year. She was a former editor of a Big 6 publishing house (Canadian). Her recommendation was to change the font. That said, I prefer @JoeySL 's single quote. I think it flows well.

Edited to add the following: my teacher said that (in traditional publishing) it would be the choice of the publisher or editor. So she basically told me not to worry. If you are going the indie publishing route, I would do the easiest thing for you to repeat, and the thing that blends best into your text.

 

[anaemic_mind]

I have chopped and changed my mind over this a lot over the last few years, but am now settled on indenting the texts slightly with the sender in bold. I recently read a few books using the same format, which has reaffirmed my decision. As a Brit, I already use single quotes for speech marks so that wouldn't work here

Example: [Ignore the underscore, was the only way to show an indent]
~~~~~~~~
He picked up his cell.
_____John: You OK?
_____Jack: Yeah, why?

 

[ShadowsFall]

There are a few ways. I just got done reading the Black Crouch book Dark Matter. He literally does it like this.

I type:

Dad and I are coming.....

He responds with:

Is everything okay?

 

[Craigd]

It probably much depends on the overall tone of your story. In my current WIP, I use it much like regular speech, only without with single quotation marks and in italics.

ETA: Looks like this:



But I've seen it done like this as well:

I prefer the second way but i guess it depends if you have a back and forward conversation. I've done it just in italics in my WIP

 

[Bitterboots]

There are a few ways. I just got done reading the Black Crouch book Dark Matter. He literally does it like this.

I type:

Dad and I are coming.....

He responds with:

Is everything okay?

Loved that book. Wondering how good the Apple show will be.

 

[Paul Lamb]

I don't (haven't) used text conversations in my stories, but I have had one character send a text to another character. (In this case, it was to show the failure of connection, so there was no response.) Thee may be a stylebook for this kind of things, and maybe your publisher will have a house style. If so, they'll change it as they want it. I had this conversation with my publisher, and we considered setting the text text in a different typeface, but we'd already done that with some email excerpts, and the chapter was looking cluttered. So now I just set a text message in ALL CAPS to distinguish it from the story narrative.

As I said, there may be a house style you have to work with, but if not, I think just make it clear to your reader that they're reading a text message, and you're fine.

 

[ShadowsFall]

Loved that book. Wondering how good the Apple show will be.

I only recently knew that Apple TV was a thing lol.
I kind of don't know if I want to watch it. I like my brain's own interpretation of it.