throughout my novel, my main character reads excerpts from a diary. The excerpts will include the date of the diary entry and several lines of text. How should this be presented? Italics? speech marks? Advice please.
There are many choices. Personally, I'd either leave it as normal text but separate chapters or change the font to smaller. Italics, for me, don't work for large chunks of text.
do not use smaller font, as mss must be in 12 pt throughout, for agent's/editor's reading comfort... and separate chapters would only work if all the parts being read are very long and need to be separate chapters for some reason [can't think of a good enough one, though]... the usual and most effective method is to insert them as block indents set off by line breaks... but, must the diarist be reading them aloud?... who would he be reading them to? i do agree that italics are a very bad idea, in any case...
My character is not reading the diary excerpts allowed. A typical block of text would be 200 words. I want the reader to know what is written in the diary. thanks for comments so far.
Maia, I wasn't referring to her sending the manuscript that way, I was just saying what works for me in a finished novel. I read several where big chunks in smaller font worked beautifully.
If you are writing only for your own pleasure and do not plan to try to have the work published, I'd say italics are fine. Otherwise, no. Why hinder your work's chances any more than you have to?
As the writer, only the manuscript should be your concern. The publisher will decide on the final presentation, and it may be presented differently in different editions. The only reasonable choice in this case is the block quote, given the length of the passages. Even if you have a few that are much shorter, better to be consistent about it.
