A Lesson on Italics

Almost two weeks ago, LisaP, my editor friend, sent me her recommendations. I spent a two vacation days reviewing her suggestions, accepting or rejecting them. [She made if very easy by using mark-up.] I'm glad she's willing to help me, cause my grammar sucks. Dyslexia doesn't help, either. And I also suck at spelling. But, hey, I'm good at prose.

She and I had a couple of heated discussions about the ways to do things. By the way, we've been friends for a long time, the type of friends that can have heated discussions. They're just part of the landscape, especially when I lived in Texas and she hosted salons. And as she said, nagging is what being an editor is all about. Anyway, she hates hates hates that I use and then, instead of and or then.  But it's the way I talk, hence the way I write. It's part of my voice. I will admit to getting rid of about two-thirds of the and thens in An Untold Want because as I read through it, I realized that it can get overwhelming. So she was mostly right.

We also had quite a few discussions about using italics.

I've pulled the examples about italics, which are great, from one of her emails. All of these are frequently used, and acceptable formats.  But, as you'll see from my responses, there are reasons I don't use some of them.

1. Thought written in first person present, italicized, tagged

Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect, she thought. I don't want it ever to end.

[Me: this is one of my pet peeves. It interrupts my reading, knocks me out of the movie rolling in my head as I read. I think this is cheating. It's lazy writing. Either you're writing in first person present or you're not. I do not like mixing tenses and person. But this is frequently used in genre novels. I don't see it very often in literary novels though.]

2. Thought written in first person present, italicized, not tagged

Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect. I don't want it ever to end.

[Me: same, better than #1 though.]

3. Thought written in first person present, not italicized, tagged

Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect, she thought. I don't want it ever to end.

[Me: same, as #1.]

4. Thought written in first person present, not italicized, not tagged

Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect. I don't want it ever to end.

[Me: better, but I still don't like mixing first person and third person.]

5. Thought written in third person past, not italicized, tagged

Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer had been so perfect, she thought. She didn't want it ever to end.

[Me: much better.]

6. Thought written in third person past, not italicized, not tagged

Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer had been so perfect. She didn't want it ever to end.

[Me: much much better, my personal favorite.]

But here's the problem, An Untold Want is written in third-person-present/literary format. Not past tense, which is the norm and for which most rules are written. Present tense is getting more popular, but it's still not considered normal.

In An Untold Want, I used a combination of #5 and #6, but in present tense.  It may feel a bit awkward, especially if you're used to reading genre, but that's the way present tense works.

Which brings to mind another rule.  In literary, and most fiction, head hopping [moving from one PoV to another within the same scene] is a big no-no.  Except in romance novels.

With that said, study your genre. Read a lot in your genre. And know the rules for that genre, or things can get very messy.