McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Unconventional communication types.

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Aminar:
I have a pair of cultures in my current novel that communicate by scripting letters across their skin.  For most of the book the relevant characters will know how to speak, and use that as their primary form of communication, but in the prologue I'm writing now I need to write a conversation using the scripted language and I'm unsure how to present it.  What are the rules for unconventional communication.

I'm debating using > instead of quotation marks.  The language scrolls so that seems like it could help to give a little subconscious help with the motion.

So for instance.

Iraisa scripted, >I have a bad feeling about this> across the palm of her hand, cupping it so only Keth could see.

belial.1980:
I don't think there are any hard fast rules. But I've seen italics used before for something like this. I've also seen authors use <> to mark what has been communicated. And example might look something like this: 

Joe walked in and greeted the bartender. <Hey, Bob. What's up?>

The other furrowed his brow, emphasizing the message he scripted across his forehead. <You've got a lot of guts showing up here after  the stunt you pulled last week.>

It's a pretty banal example but I think you get the gist. Good luck with your work.

LizW65:
You could try using a different font for the script.  Just don't make it too weird or difficult to read, or it will be distracting.

Snowleopard:
I've seen italic used for someone else's mental thoughts so I would think it would work for
skin scripting.  Wild idea by the way.

Haru:

--- Quote from: LizW65 on January 01, 2012, 12:27:43 AM ---You could try using a different font for the script.  Just don't make it too weird or difficult to read, or it will be distracting.

--- End quote ---

I second this. Especially if you want to bring it up later in the book, the reader will instantly connect the different font to the different type of communication, giving him an "in the know" feel, which is a cool thing in my opinion. I have seen writers use a typewriter (or ancient printer) style font to convey digital communication, for example. It will disrupt the flow of the text, but in a good way. Maybe you can get away with colors, which would fit if different people scripted in different colors, eliminating the need for "he said", "she scripted", etc.

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