Posted: December 14th, 2021

How to Write Text Messages in a Novel? (With Real Example)

In this internet and technology era, everyone uses cell phones to communicate with others through text messaging and calls. But this article is not about that. It is focused on How to write Text Messages In a Novel or fictional work. Several topics about this will be covered briefly in this article.

Novels and writing parts of literature and language are prominent in our culture. Writing helps us communicate our ideas. As a writer, you may wonder how to style or write text messages in a Novel. For example, should they be Bold, Italic, or use Quotation marks?

With the advancement of social media and the internet advances, apps have been introduced for messaging and social networking. The only concern of writers nowadays is how to write texts that are clear, consistent, and not confusing.

How to Format Text Messages in Fiction?

So what is the style that you must choose for creative writing contexts? One time the Chicago General guidelines worked Best, but they needed some improvements to fit the fiction page. So here, we will specifically cover how various styles cover different kinds of works and know the problems that may occur.

The Chicago Way

I don’t suggest specific recommendations for formatting text messages in formal writing. However, The Chicago Way is the established practice for articles, reports, Academic books, and nonfiction work.

On a rainy day, my friend texted me: “the rain is not going to finish. Meet you tomorrow.”

In a Novel, the Chicago Style may take place the same way. As we know, Quotation marks are associated with words spoken; therefore, in Fiction, text messages are either in the form of Bold or Italics. 

As I opened my mobile to read the message, the text read: See you tomorrow morning! It was Adam.

Conversation Complications

Messages between texters, either two or more, create more than a challenge to and fro. Minor and infrequent texting, or those where the medium for delivery is insignificant, may be related to the narrative of action beats.

He texted why this book? And I instantly replied I love literature. 

These conversations set off a kind of block. And we can call this mimicry of mobile apps. Unsteady indent levels take the outgoing texts farther to the right than incoming texts.

Why This Book? I thought you did not read.

No, I love reading literature.

If untreated, readers would get confused about who’s texting, more importantly, with group texts. Self-publishers must know that if the staggered formatting is lost during the publication process, it will undoubtedly create problems.

Mentioning the speaker’s name clarifies who is speaking, but it becomes large and awkward and looks like a transcript. 

(Me) Why this book? I thought you did not read literature. 

(Greta) No, I love reading literature.

Thus, we find a need for better solutions on How to Write Text Messages in a Novel. Yes, there are the Best solutions! 

Once More with Feeling

Many writers and readers believe that text formatted in narration fails to propose the meaning of a text as we know that texts are small and immediate, unlike letters, emails and voice messages. 

They carry their intimacy. They are urgent and if they are formatted ordinarily. It gives them a flatness and shows no currentness.

Additionally, a text that’s only a collection of a group text conversation can’t show clarity not provided by the exact syntax of a tight column of text messages spread left and right that make the difference between each texter either by name, headshot or colour.

Filmmakers know the extraordinary quality of texts in movies. So instead of showing the readers in the character’s phone, they are portrayed on the screen beautifully. 

Graphics as Narrative, Not Illustration

In the recent past, hybrid or multimodal novels had shown elements of Graphics in addition to ordinary text. The acts have made the readers of all times approve and expect that a Narrative should not only consist of texts. Nowadays, we like reading on Graphical interfaces, for example, In messaging apps, social media, and blogs.

So you don’t wonder when you see drawings, sticky notes, photos, and fonts while reading because they are an essential and chronological part of the narrative. These are not just Illustrations.

It is important to position these Graphics concerning the text perfectly. It’s not like Illustration, as such caution is not mandatory there.

Potential Pitfalls 

This is very crucial. Anyone who wants to use text messages in a Fiction narrative to make it fascinating visually and coherent must count the marginal benefits and losses or pros and cons.

For example, using colours in books can be very costly. And most certainly, any unique and realistic visual will long the finish of your work. This may be an excellent choice for historical Fiction. But nay for a story that you would like to finish contemporarily. 

Best Practices

Now you will want to know the best practices for using text messages in a Novel. It is alright if you use pictures taken from your mobile. There are excellent apps that will also help you create fictional text messages. In both ways, these details provided will take care of themselves. 

If you use other media for creating text messages appearance, creators must take care of displaying messages. Texts are displayed constantly talking about this writing practice.

So for individual texts, use the left justification that is ragged to the right edge. Indication of incoming and outgoing messages stagger both left and right bubbles separately. Date, Timestamps, colours,  usernames, and or headshots and fonts that are App dependent are consistently imparted.

Images

Text messages are also used in images. They are used to engage readers and viewers. For instance, take the example of Crazy Rich Asians, a 2018 movie. Here is how rumors Spread. In this scene, the writer shows the text messages communication in colourful blocks and animations. You can see its examples below in the picture or check out the video on YouTube.

You can also see This Scene from Fault In Our Stars on how text messages are extensively used.

How to display Text Messages?

You want to use text messages in your Novel or fictional work, but the question you are likely to ask is how to display Text messages or How to Write Text Messages in a Novel. These are some questions that you must ask yourself when deciding how to display text messages.

The Chicago Style doesn’t focus much on how to style texts. Here, quotation marks are used if a designer doesn’t create specific typography in messages, as we see in books written for children and teenagers. 

This style says that it is unnecessary to use various text styles in emails, conversations, or other ways of exchange. The question is how this problem has been dealt with elsewhere. Nowadays, we see that several epistolary works are in emails, texts, Social media posts, tweets and IMs.

New situations are not restricted by tradition; therefore, formatting and design logic can be customized for each story.

Below are the examples from novels. These are placed by the extent of visual impact and note. Here we know how a publisher adopts various styles. 

1)

Hey, the text reads.

Hey yourself, I text back; I miss you.

Juliann Rich, Gravity, Bold Strokes Books, 2016

Italics help point out the change of shift. Therefore, we see that italics are used to display letters and book passages.

But if you use italics to signal internal dialogue, thoughts, memories and flashbacks. Then you may use other styles of text messages for more clarity. 

2)

Kim: He used to get picked on.

“What?” I whispered.

Me: He’s never said anything about that.

—Kenneth Logan, True Letters from a Fictional Life, HarperTeen, 2016

3)

I grab a sketchbook, but my phone vibrates.

U free? No name attached.

Depends on who you are.

—Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Original Fake, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016

Here the text message is bold In the line, which may look disturbing. But “Original Fake” has art, graphics and is visually bold to engage readers to read.

Here is a text; the primary viewpoint is on the right, and the other is on the left. This is an excellent example of Kindle versions. In addition to honest text conversations, shaded bubbles are also presented in the print book. Keep your editorial intention in mind, and then choose sustainable text styles.

How to Format Texting in Novels?

Writers find using spoken dialogues in Novels easy. Since there is no specific text messaging guide to follow, it gives writers the freedom to create their methods of displaying texts in books. Undoubtedly, formatting texts to make them readers friendly is quite tricky.

The primary purpose of texts is to serve the story. To get more of that, think about your intention of using text messages. For example, is it for knowledge purposes? Is it to express something about a meaningful relationship? Is text conversation part of the action? Is the text message something being read by the character.

Below is a typical example of text messages in a Novel.

Stephen:       Should we discuss the topic?

William:    Of course, it would be great.

Stephen:       How about 7 pm at my home?

William:    K, sounds perfect. See you there.

If you are the one who wants the text to be a little modern, then you can use left and proper justification to point out who is typing.

Remember, the person looking at their phone will see the messages displayed to their right while the messages received are on the left, as shown above.

Should we discuss the topic?

Of course, it would be great.

How about 7 pm at my home?

K, sounds perfect. See you there.

There are several other ways to use text messages in books.

1.How to write text messages in an essay

Yes, text messages are used in Essays much or less in the same way in Novels. For clarification and more information, writers use text messages in Essays that are not that wide. Essays are generally without texts.

As we know that in Text Messages, shortcuts are used. We also understand that the use of cell phones has increased drastically. It is undoubtedly a standard communication tool.

Now you know that the fate of formal essay writing in this area of shortcuts is alarming. The unfortunate thing is shortcuts are also being used in essay writing which plays a pivotal role in students’ higher education level. Lastly, text messages have turned to he shortcuts and using shortcuts in the essay is terrible.

2.How to quote a text message in a story?

Sometimes we see text messages in a story. May you have specific questions like should it have quotation marks? Should it be written in italic, Bold or what?

For exp, the text message in the story is: See you at 10 Sharp in the park. Now should you use ten or not? If the quote is direct, then write it the same way as typed in the message. There are loads of abbreviations in text messages. To make your story real, you must use them.

For exp, 

She typed, ” MM @ Park @ 10,” and paused for a moment before clicking on the send button.

3.How to write text messages in Fanfiction?

Before diving into the topic of how to write text messages in Fanfiction, let me tell you what this Fanfiction is?

Fanfiction refers to those stories and works that are written by fans. Reports are written based on characters, the plot from either one source or many sources. The stories created by fans are not the same as the existing story, but sometimes they are taken in a completely different direction. 

Activities of fans may be in many forms. Stories taken from one or more text sources have long been the most popular way of giving ideas definite forms.

In Fanfiction, different users utilize different approaches to writing text messages. For exp, some upload on A03 and use right and left justify. Many people write text messages in Stories using single quotations and italicizing texts.

Example:

Hearing the phone notification, she saw that Sam had texted her.

‘Do you wanna come to the party at my home?’

She was confused as she had to do a lot of school work. But she thought she could do them.

‘I’m free in about an hour.’

He stared at the phone; Her reply appeared: ‘Sure! I’ll come.’

So that’s all, use the best way that suits your intentions and use text messages in Fanfiction. 

4.How to write text messages in a script?

There isn’t a specific recommendation on how to write text messages in a script, but two things are consistent and clear and very important. 

In a script for a screen, using only one text rather than showing the whole conversation is helpful. This is how text messages are written in a script. 

5.How do you show text dialogue in a story?

So how do you show text in a story if it’s a two-person dialogue? You can use standard dialogue to an extent when you can display in each block that the dialogue is on text messaging. Standard dialogue separates itself from normal dialogue by italicizing text messages. 

There is another way text dialogues are shown in a story. It is the text graphics on the screen as characters are texting.

6.How do I display text messages in a book?

Texting is used in everyday life, so a book based on a realistic story without texts is incomplete. But using texts correctly is not awkward at all.

It gives a touch to the story first. The texts are used with double quotations and show characters’ names. It shows clarity.

If it’s a group chat, then the character’s name before their text is used. The italics format shows consistency. 

You want the text to be similar to conversations in real life, so as long as the meaning is clear, using slang, abbreviations or making minor grammatical errors is not a big deal.

Conclusion

This article has briefly covered how you can write text messages in a  Novel or fictional work. It has explained the formats and styles of using text messages. This article on text message writing has given a glimpse of conversational advancement in today’s Internet age. So we hope that this article will help you significantly write text messages in Fictional works.

FAQs

What is the Chicago Style?

The Chicago Style is a style guide for American English. It was published in 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. This style is mainly used for citing sources in history, social sciences, humanities and sciences. 

What’s the difference between an email and a comment?

E-mail stands for electronic mail. It is used to attract and exchange information on the computer or mobiles. An email contains either text, images, files or attachments. 

In general, a comment is an expression of words on certain things. In coding, it is a text in a program that users don’t see. It is seen when the source code is seen.

What is text conversation?

Text conversation is talking or communication taking place with text words between two or more people. 

What are the benefits of using social media in your writing?

There are loads of benefits of using social media in your writing. For example, it provides you with almost all kinds and levels of information on specific topics. You can use social media to know what type of writing readers like. With the help of some sites and applications in social media, you can further strengthen your writing.