posted
In a section of my current WiP, there is an exchange of emails. My question is, do I write them in italics, bold, or some other font different to the one I'm using, to distinguish them, or just carry on with the same font and style as the rest of the story?
Posts: 626 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Assuming the story gets printed in Times Roman (that's common, or some other serif font like Garamond) you might consider Arial, which is the default font for many e-mail systems.
posted
I'm wondering if you could simply put it into the body much like a text version of headers, with only the current message showing. (Card does this in several of his Shadow books. Specifically in "Shadow of the Hegemon," so that is a good place to look for an example, as well).
Something like:
from: humperdinck@florin.gov to: rugen@florin.gov subject: Ongoing Funding, Pit of Despair
Dearest Tyrone:
While I understand your commitment to bringing the highest quality of pain, torture and humiliation experiences to our current prisoner population, it is time for us to seriously discuss certain limits in your prospective pain induction research budget....
I think that something like this will provide you with legitimacy of address in the to/from lines, as well as even give the reader some cues through the subject line. I do think that it has to be well thought out, but I think its effective if done well (not saying my example is either of these...).
Also, since it will likely be more than six lines long, they could be indented a half an inch from the left margin, which would specifically set them apart from the rest of the text.
Hope this helps,
Thane
[This message has been edited by Igwiz (edited November 21, 2007).]
posted
I love in-book emails and letters. It's really a great immersive technique. The way Card does it works pretty well.
Posts: 683 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I suppose in a printed MS the email could be in Arial and the rest in Times New Roman. Or vice versa. The final typesetting might have to wait on what the publisher thinks.
In my Internet Fan Fiction days, I passed around a couple of stories where I played with different type in text. Had to give it up---a lot of people said the text showed up as gibberish.
No fancy formatting within the manuscript. Indent each paragraph five spaces (1/2 in.). Indicate italics by underlining (do not use italics; they are easily missed). Indicate boldface by drawing a wavy line beneath the text and writing "bf" in a circle in the margin. Do not hyphenate words (the typesetter will include the hyphen so the word might read "Schenec-tady"). Do not right justify the text (you may like it, but it's harder to read -- especially on long paragraphs -- and it messes up word counts).
Unfortunately, they don't tell a standard for epithets--which is what standard (I assume) that you would use.
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited November 21, 2007).]
posted
You can include instructions on how you want the emails to look in the final printing, though. Usually things like that are sent to the editor after the story has been purchased in what is known as a "style sheet."
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posted
Been trying to find something online that talks about style sheets for novel publication, but it appears that web design has co-opted the term, and locating anything through Google is becoming prohibitive.
Maybe there's something on some of the editor or writer blogs out there?
posted
There's an interesting post on "style sheets" here, which is Deanna Hoak's blog (She's a freelance copyeditor that does a lot of work for TOR). I haven't seen anything on epithets yet, but I'll let you know if I find something.
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited November 23, 2007).]
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