How do you like to emphasize specific words?

[Worthy39]

Just got to a point writing a chapter, and I had a word I wanted to emphasize and wasn't sure what I wanted to do for it. All caps? Different font? How do you guys usually emphasize words? For example, how would you emphasize the word "little" in this sentence?

"Okay, maybe I'm a little reckless."

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Italicize works best for SH's format. Easiest to read and understand.

 

[pangmida]

Depends on how the character says it aloud.

"Okay, maybe I'm a little reckless." = flat delivery, deadpan or just plain observation
"Okay, maybe I'm a little reckless." = character acknowledging that they, in fact, may be a little more reckless than they thought
"Okay, maybe I'm a liiiittle reckless." = same as above, but dragging it out, works for a more jovial or silly character
"Okay, maybe I'm a LITTLE reckless." = (personal least favorite) much louder emphasis on "little," slightly aggressive tone?

 

[Worthy39]

Italicize works best for SH's format. Easiest to read and understand.

The fact I never even noticed that there was a way to do that before despite having been uploading for three months makes me very disappointed in myself. Literally went to the chapter creation screen just to see if there actually was a button for that.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

The fact I never even noticed that there was a way to do that before despite having been uploading for three months makes me very disappointed in myself. Literally went to the chapter creation screen just to see if there actually was a button for that.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think you can even use your keyboard for codes, like control-b, control-i, etc., for bold and italic. *^^*

 

[Deleted member 266]

bold and italic.

Use a while line just for one word.

Havent thought about it except not to use em-dashes.

 

[Worthy39]

I'm not entirely sure, but I think you can even use your keyboard for codes, like control-b, control-i, etc., for bold and italic. *^^*

I don't have a computer, I do all my uploads on mobile. But had I known that was there all along, I would've written at least a dozen sentences differently... oh well. That's what rewriting is for.

 

[FRWriter]

bold and italic.

Use a while line just for one word.

Havent thought about it except not to use em-dashes.

That's how AI operates.

I refuse to highlight words for impact! The writing should speak for itself. I hate telling my readers, "Listen here, this word is important or has special impact, take a good look, you dummy!" Context should be enough.

I only use italic for the MC's internal thoughts.

 

[Deleted member 266]

That's how AI operates.

I am pass caring how a.i. operates.

I dont use em-dashes because I just dont like reading them, plus needing to find out how to type them on my keyboard. I am already lacking enough braincells as is, I dont need that know how.

 

[EMatthews18]

Depends on how the character says it aloud.

"Okay, maybe I'm a little reckless." = flat delivery, deadpan or just plain observation
"Okay, maybe I'm a little reckless." = character acknowledging that they, in fact, may be a little more reckless than they thought
"Okay, maybe I'm a liiiittle reckless." = same as above, but dragging it out, works for a more jovial or silly character
"Okay, maybe I'm a LITTLE reckless." = (personal least favorite) much louder emphasis on "little," slightly aggressive tone?

Oh thanks!!! That gives me a lot of ideas on how to better my emphasis.

 

[Avarice_Of_The_Seven]

I am pass caring how a.i. operates.

I dont use em-dashes because I just dont like reading them, plus needing to find out how to type them on my keyboard. I am already lacking enough braincells as is, I dont need that know how.

You can just copy-paste em dash from your ai chat when you polish your chapter. that's much faster than adding it by alt code. I do this as well.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I would EMphasize random syllables JUST to be obnoxious

 

[Zagaroth]

That's how AI operates.

I refuse to highlight words for impact! The writing should speak for itself. I hate telling my readers, "Listen here, this word is important or has special impact, take a good look, you dummy!" Context should be enough.

I only use italic for the MC's internal thoughts.

If you are modifying your work because of what LLMs do, then you are weakening your writing. LLMs 'learned' patterns like that because those patterns are what people have been using since the 1900's.

Italics have been used for emphasis since before personal computers existed (though only when sent to the printing company; typewriters could not do italics). Em-dashes were indicated by using double-hyphens, and those were changed to em-dashes when it was sent to the printers.

Do not be a weak writer who caves in front of LLMs, be a strong and defiant writer. Form your writing style because it is the writing style you want, not because you want to make sure you are different than an LLM. For one thing, if a lot of people shift their writing patterns to avoid 'AI things', then the next round of AI will follow that shift in patterns, and there will no longer be a difference between their writing and LLM writing.

 

[CinnaSloth]

"Okay, maybe I'm a little reckless."

"Okay. Maybe, I'm.. a little reckless."

This would read. "Okay." stop. "Maybe," pause "I'm" lingering pause, "a little" in your own mind pause (small as it may be) because there is no actual pause, you just naturally pause because 'a little', easily rolls off the tongue, unlike the word "reckless" which has to be (pronunciated/ pronounced/ enunciated => pick whatever word you want) correctly. End sentence. Which i bet you also read, "easily" (a few words back) with emphasis on your own.

But that's just me. Every author has their own style, just like most everyone on the thread. You should write which way way you feel most comfortable. The only reason I say that is, If you don't continue to use the same way throughout your writing, it shows, and it ruins its flow. one chapter using ALL CAPS vs a few chapters later you're using bold, or italics but also use italics for thoughts, but then also use... it gets messy. Do what feels comfortable to you as an author.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

If you find yourself in a place like webnovel that only has basic bitch text, asterisks for a more modern accepted approach or, a d i v i d e d method for words that was used for some typewriters can work. In general, use italics since that was the original way to emphasize anyway.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

If you find yourself in a place like webnovel that only has basic bitch text, asterisks for a more modern accepted approach or, a d i v i d e d method for words that was used for some typewriters can work. In general, use italics since that was the original way to emphasize anyway.

Well, the original typed method was the overstrike - to go back and type over the same characters and attain a bold look. IIRC, early keypress machines (60s or so) added in the ability to italicize (But the one time I "helped" dad lay out the real newspaper he edited, we did italics by literally cutting the letters apart after waxing them and placing them physically on the page to be printed at an angle - bigger presses had automatic options by then - probably '77 or '78 - but not the one his company used). Early word processors had both "Italics" tags and "Emphasis" tags (usually either "Ital" or just "I" in brackets or between <> signs for Italics and "EM" for boldface)
Of course movable type presses sometimes had extra sets of bold or italic characters but those were for the really rich publishers...