There don’t seem to be any universal rules for indicating texting in books and short stories. How do you handle it?
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What Works for Me
Texting is a free-for-all in books, especially the e-book field. It’s not writing, but it’s not narrative. And there were lots of options when I researched it. So, I invented my own texting for my books.
In print books, I give them their own font, different enough to be distinctive. In ebooks, you can really do that, so I type the name of the texter in ALL CAPS and bold and then I put the text itself in bold italics. That works great for single texts, but I often have text conversations. I indent the reply, put the name in all caps and bold and the text in bold italics. It looks pretty good.
JAZZ – Where are you? The natives are getting restless.
SHANE – What do you mean? It’s a convention of government nerds.
JAZZ – They’re screaming at one another and bringing up crap that happened before the Bombs.
SHANE – So the tribes are banging their drums. I wish I was there. Sounds entertaining.
JAZZ – You like living dangerously. Mike’s worried.
SHANE – Coming.
It’s simple and makes it clear this is not dialogue or a letter.
aurorawatcherak 