1. Lmc71775

    Lmc71775 Active Member

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    Texting and IMing

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by Lmc71775, Mar 7, 2010.

    How do you write the correct way when one character is texting another?

    How r u? I text to her.
    Good and u? she text back.

    Or

    "How are you?" I text her
    "Good and you?" she text back.

    or something else. can you use real text talk? like brb and lol and stuff like that and how so do you write it properly in a book?

    same for IMing

    "I love you so much," HeSoHorny wrote me.

    or:

    HeSoHorny: I love you so much

    I would think the second one cause it looks like an IM
     
  2. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Treat it as dialogue. If it's more than a short message or two, consider the use of a block quote, an indented block of literal text:
    Although you should never use netspeak or misspellings in narrative or spoken dialogue, you can, and probably should, retain in it written exchanges.

    Within a block quote, include the prompts at the beginnings of the lines (Jimbo_sez and LisJ792 in this case), but in regular dialogue, only include the message:
     
  3. Lmc71775

    Lmc71775 Active Member

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    Thanks Cogito! I appreciate that.
     

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