February 11, 2011

Italic text: enough already?

Do I use italics too much? Seriously, I'd like your opinion.

In my fiction writing, I italicize fewer words than I do here. This blog is not a literary endeavor; it's just for fun. So I feel free to italicize all I want. But I do have concerns about it. For instance, am I making my words harder to read? That's the last thing I want. My intent is to make the sentence seem more like a person's voice. It seems to me we speak in italics. Hopefully, this works. For instance, it's fun to quote some stupid thing the popey guy said, and then add, in italics, "Indeed." I get a kick out of that sort or thing. Have you had any italic fun here? I hope so.

I have an additional concern. While readers with a literary background will read italicized text and understand what is meant by it, is this true for less literate readers? Do they understand what italics mean? Or is an italicized word just another snarl on the dyslexic road, a series of curves with no meaning?

I don't know if I should lay off the italics or perhaps lessen my use of them. Anyone hate the way I toss them around? Be honest and let me know. Thanks. 

6 comments:

Anna Guess Pick said...

It's OK as long as you remember "If something within a run of italics needs to be italicized itself, the type is normally switched back to non-italicized (roman) type"

See what you caused me to do...Goggle 'italic', learned more than I ever wanted to know....

Hope you had a great day.

writenow said...

Actually, I wrote and rewrote one scene all day long and I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it. Aaargh. Tomorrow's another day.

Anna Guess Pick said...

By the way I sent you an email today. Did you receive it?

writenow said...

And I've answered by email. Thanks again for being such a good (and regular) commenter, Annie.

cm said...

I don't think you're overdoing it at all. You know what's funny though? Your profile picture is sort of italic. You're just an italic type of guy. It's good.
C

writenow said...

That's funny. I guess I'm a very italic fellow. Since it sounds like Italian, I'll take it. Good to see you stop by, C.