15 Comments

Great analysis as always! I was wondering about italics too. I liked them when I saw them used for dialogue most recently in Sarah Broom's The Yellow House. They made the dialogue feel more authentic somehow, but I could never put my finger on it the way you did. Honestly I mostly just thought it was cool.

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Jan 17Liked by Ben Dolnick

A shrewd article as always, Ben. Thanks a lot.

In my seat-of the pants first draft of a fairly pathetic (so far) short story I am using different colours for the different speakers to help speed me on my way.

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I wonder how you feel about quotation marks in your work?

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I just love this so much! Thank you for this insightful answer, wrapped in such a delightful metaphor, to a question I have wondered about, but couldn't figure out, so instead, made lazy judgements: Trendy. Show-Off. Or, if I liked what I read, just, hmmmm, why this? No idea. Your explanation makes so much sense! I can't wait to find examples and experience the dialogue now.

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