Thread: Loud, Angry and/or Surprised Speech

I've seen stressed words in print handled in many different ways, including FULL UPPERCASE, bold lowercase, italics and even some combinations thereof, often followed by exclamation marks!!! My fear is, that with a lot of dialogue, which I have in my novel, making stressed words stand out will become too repetitive and distracting to the reader. How does everyone handle this? My feeling is that this type of thing should be used very sparingly.

My boss tells me off in capital letters in emails! IT'S REALLY ANNOYING!
I agree with you, this sort of emphasis should be used sparingly to have maximum impact.

I'd never use all caps -- and I can't recall that I've ever seen them or bold type used to show emphasis in anything published. Italics and exclamation marks (never more than one) should be used sparingly. Dialog tags can also work in small doses. Otherwise, the context should do most of the heavy lifting.

Write it. Then go back and read it. If it's wrong, it'll look wrong. Many times when we're writing with emotion, we want to express the exact THING we are feeling. But then when we read it later it looks kinda dumb.

Write it. Then go back and read it. Then fix it!

Originally Posted by JosephB

I'd never use all caps -- and I can't recall that I've ever seen them or bold type used to show emphasis in anything published.

Harry Potter > I've also seen her use sounds instead of words, such as "BAM!" "KAPOW!" and other Batman-like absurdities. With eloquence like that it's no wonder she's so famous.

edit: to ring in on the discussion at hand. I don't think you should EVER use a typographical trick for emphasis (see what I did there? The emphasis? That's cuz I believe that for various good reasons internet-forums get a pass on a lot of good-writing rules). It's cheating and it looks unprofessional. If somebody is shaking, and their face turns red, I'll have a good idea that what they say is emphasized. If somebody interrupts, shouts, or slams something as they speak, I'll know that what they say is emphasized. "BANG" is lazy when you consider all the images, sounds and impressions that should be going along with "BANG" and which will make it quite redundant.

Like any artistic device, it has its place. It can be done well or poorly. I recently reread the Harry Potters and I remember Mr. Dursley and Mrs. Weasly both freaking out in all caps. I think what separates a situation needing all caps from normal emphasis is the person is really hollering. Done too much it would start to seem tacky and gimmicky.

edit: lol, Slugfly, didn't see your reply before I posted.

Originally Posted by Slugfly

Harry Potter > I've also seen her use sounds instead of words, such as "BAM!" "KAPOW!" and other Batman-like absurdities. With eloquence like that it's no wonder she's so famous.

Really? I'm sorry to hear that. I haven't read the Potter books. I might try when my children are old enough to read them. Or not.

For the record I should state that I have opinions, and most of them are exactly that: opinions. Giving credit where credit is due, Harry Potter is often credited with teaching an entire generation, in the midst of the videogame takeover, that reading can be pretty awesome.

I'm fine with the Potter books. All caps just seem really tacky to me -- so I'm surprised. But I know discerning readers who say they aren't bad. They're just not something I would ever read.

Thank you very much to kayt, JosephB, KarlR, Slugfly, and caelum. After reading your replies, just out of interest, I pulled 5 books at random off my bookshelf (John Irving's Last Night in Twisted River, Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, David Mitchell's Black Swan Green, Ken Follett's Fall of Giants and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I wouldn't say that they are riddled with italics, but four of them (all but Rowling) certainly don't skimp on their use. Rowling DEFINITELY uses full caps. And I do like tags, but not too many of those, either. Guess I'll try to fall somewhere in the middle! Thanks again.

Kite Runner was amazing... totally off topic. :p

I read the book and watched the film.I was left feeling disappointed in human beings again!

It's the nature of people... But isn't Hassan the most noble and beautiful person ever?! I was pretty amazed by the novel, though I don't remember much all-caps speech (to pretend that I'm staying on topic). I thought that the violence (dominance-rape, child sex-slaves) was very wisely portrayed, with minimal actual exposure to the acts and loads of inferences and direct exposure to the consequences. That's only one small aspect though, there's so much going on in this novel. I often liken it to Midnight's Children by Rushdie, which is also very much about the history, beauty and ugly injustices of the culture he grew up in.