Ahem, funny how I screwed up the code and made everything bold just as I'm saying that I hardly ever use bold type.
Hmmmm, I don't think I've ever used bold type in a fic with the possible exception of chapter titles.
In fact, the only one of these abuses that I persist in perpetrating is using the occasional *asterisk* and I honestly don't have a good excuse for myself.
I primarily use italics for interior thoughts (which I do because I tend to write in the third person limited POV and do have to delineate when it is an actual internally "verbalized" thought). And I have used italics to denote flashbacks/dreams but not in awhile. I also use them to emphasize words but I try not to do it too often as it lessens the impact.
The main things that throw me out of the reading experience are any kind of abbreviations/netspeak and bold type or caps. The former is just F-ing wrong unless you are writing some sort of crack!fic that involves people emailing each other and the latter two are just extremely jarring to my tender eyes.
I have issues with em dashes and the abuse there of. Just ask my beta amybnnyc. Heh. At least I've read the Chicago Manual of style and know the difference between a dash, an en dash and an em dash.
Oh, and I forgot that I do the words mashed together thing also (albeit sparingly), although I think that this comes from my background in German where one frequently encounters compound nouns. And when I do that, I tend to italicize the cumulative expression.
But now, I feel like I'm just listing off my own behaviors rather than contributing to this discussion in a meaningful way. Your post has made me think though--the full prognosis just hasn't become clear yet.
One thing though that you didn't mention--and I don't know if it entirely fits here--but which I think about often, is how people space their sentences and/or paragraphs. I think it's obvious that people who don't put a space between speakers in dialogue are trying to make me lose my mind. But I feel as though I tend to have a great deal more spaces in my fic and for me this has to do with rhythm and the way that I hear the flow of text in my head. And I suppose it is reminiscent of poetry as well. In my case, this probably happens a lot because especially in my short fics, they tend to be mood pieces more than they are strictly narrative. I think this is also related to the fact that I tend to write fic that is very closely aligned with one character and so the perspective is much more intimate and therefore more malleable.
no subject
Hmmmm, I don't think I've ever used bold type in a fic with the possible exception of chapter titles.
In fact, the only one of these abuses that I persist in perpetrating is using the occasional *asterisk* and I honestly don't have a good excuse for myself.
I primarily use italics for interior thoughts (which I do because I tend to write in the third person limited POV and do have to delineate when it is an actual internally "verbalized" thought). And I have used italics to denote flashbacks/dreams but not in awhile. I also use them to emphasize words but I try not to do it too often as it lessens the impact.
The main things that throw me out of the reading experience are any kind of abbreviations/netspeak and bold type or caps. The former is just F-ing wrong unless you are writing some sort of crack!fic that involves people emailing each other and the latter two are just extremely jarring to my tender eyes.
I have issues with em dashes and the abuse there of. Just ask my beta
Oh, and I forgot that I do the words mashed together thing also (albeit sparingly), although I think that this comes from my background in German where one frequently encounters compound nouns. And when I do that, I tend to italicize the cumulative expression.
But now, I feel like I'm just listing off my own behaviors rather than contributing to this discussion in a meaningful way. Your post has made me think though--the full prognosis just hasn't become clear yet.
One thing though that you didn't mention--and I don't know if it entirely fits here--but which I think about often, is how people space their sentences and/or paragraphs. I think it's obvious that people who don't put a space between speakers in dialogue are trying to make me lose my mind. But I feel as though I tend to have a great deal more spaces in my fic and for me this has to do with rhythm and the way that I hear the flow of text in my head. And I suppose it is reminiscent of poetry as well. In my case, this probably happens a lot because especially in my short fics, they tend to be mood pieces more than they are strictly narrative. I think this is also related to the fact that I tend to write fic that is very closely aligned with one character and so the perspective is much more intimate and therefore more malleable.
Oh my, I think this ramble needs to end now. *g*