1. Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie New Member

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    Novel Presentation of Diary entries: Dare I ask for more advice?

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by Agatha Christie, Feb 23, 2012.

    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.
     
  2. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    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.
     
  3. AmyHolt

    AmyHolt New Member

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    Jazzabel beat me to the punch and said what I was going to say. Great advice Jazz.
     
  4. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    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...
     
  5. Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie New Member

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    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.
     
  6. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    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.
     
  7. aimi_aiko

    aimi_aiko New Member

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    If this was me, I'd be using the block-quote format along with italics.
     
  8. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    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?
     
  9. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    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.
     

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