Fanfic Trope of the Day: Italics
Mar. 16th, 2008 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficItalics are more emphatic than their bombastic cousin, bolding, so they tend to get used more often in emotional fanfics. In action-oriented fics, you'd probably see bolding get more of a work-out, if there were any action-oriented fics on LJ. Italic use tends to fall into one of two categories.
1. Italics are used to indicate thoughts so much that it's second nature. If a reader sees italics, it's pretty safe to assume that it means someone's thinking. E.g., Scott snuck out at night to buy me a new Mega-Rod? Barda thought with a wondering expression. Does it have anything to do with our anniversary next month?
2. Italics are also used to indicate orgasm. My, that's a shift. But to avoid the gynocological aspects of intimacy, the generally unarousing stuff of "his big red cock ramrodded into her tight, wet pussy", italics are used to indicate rather than explicate sexiness. E.g., "his rough hands brushed over her pubic hair before settling right... there and pushed hardhardhard until her teeth fucking clenched" and so on and so forth because run-on sentences are also used to indicate orgasm. In effect, orgasms in fanfic are kinda like a cat running across your mental keyboard.
It's unknown how italics would express it if someone thought about having an orgasm, but the universe would probably collapse in on itself. So, don't do that.
1. Italics are used to indicate thoughts so much that it's second nature. If a reader sees italics, it's pretty safe to assume that it means someone's thinking. E.g., Scott snuck out at night to buy me a new Mega-Rod? Barda thought with a wondering expression. Does it have anything to do with our anniversary next month?
2. Italics are also used to indicate orgasm. My, that's a shift. But to avoid the gynocological aspects of intimacy, the generally unarousing stuff of "his big red cock ramrodded into her tight, wet pussy", italics are used to indicate rather than explicate sexiness. E.g., "his rough hands brushed over her pubic hair before settling right... there and pushed hardhardhard until her teeth fucking clenched" and so on and so forth because run-on sentences are also used to indicate orgasm. In effect, orgasms in fanfic are kinda like a cat running across your mental keyboard.
It's unknown how italics would express it if someone thought about having an orgasm, but the universe would probably collapse in on itself. So, don't do that.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 05:32 pm (UTC)This is perfectly gramatically correct, Sabine thought, though it can get confusing sometimes.
Incidentally, she told roguecatwoman over their ubersecret brain link, you can do telepathy this way as well, without those godawful tildes that X-Men fandom is so fond of.
"It's also acceptable to think like this," Sabine wondered, "but it's messy."
no subject
Date: 2008-03-18 08:00 pm (UTC)