How to portray a text message conversation?

[Britva415]

minimum lift for the reader

Yeah! This!

 

[nice90sguy]

Check out the below, which is meant to look a bit like WhatsApp.
The <hr> tags make horizontal rules, but you might prefer to leave them out.


<hr><p align=left><i>naked on yr knees</i></p>
<p align=right><i>yes, goddess, already am</i></p>
<p align=left><i>send photo</i></p><hr>
He sent me a photo. He was kneeling on the floor by his bed.

<hr><p align=left><i>gemma and me are coming to London, we will stay in your house</i></p><hr>
He didn’t respond, he was probably too excited. But then I continued:

<hr><p align=left><i>find a hostel for you to stay. It must be cheap, all your money should be for me, not for you. Maximum £150 a week. I checked, there are many at that price</i></p>

 

[Morevinila]

I used a simple way in my submission to Summer Lovin 2024 contest (Impromptu Sex Beach Party).
Inthe opening lines I indicated that there was a chat going on between several people then I simply put the person's name followed by his text between quotes, then for next person, break to new line, name of person and text between quotes.

{...This morning chat was their usual routine before each hit the road for school. That is, it was usual until an idea more appropriate to their high school days was launched.

Alain: "Hey guys, superb weather today! Don't know about you but here at my place, sun is out bright."

Thierry: "Same here, 'lain. It sucks to be wasting such a glorious day at school desks."

Jamal: "Hey guys, how about playing truant? We could head for the beach, have a dip, then sit in the shade and watch the tourists dry it off. Tourists' Cove's ideal place for that." ...}

 

[AwkwardMD]

Check out the below, which is meant to look a bit like WhatsApp.

Oooooo, that looks quite nice

 

[nice90sguy]

Oooooo, that looks quite nice

I tried replacing the up and down arrows with and emojis, and it kind of spoiled the domme's dark, manipulative vibe and made her look like a seven-year old

 

[AwkwardMD]

I tried replacing the up and down arrows with and emojis, and it kind of spoiled the domme's dark, manipulative vibe and made her look like a seven-year old

I don't know if those arrows will work on Lit's story side, but it’s very clean

 

[nice90sguy]

They do. That screenshot is off Lit, from my last published story (in sig)

 

[AwkwardMD]

There's no one right way to do it. The keys are to be clear and to be consistent so the reader understands exactly what's going on.

My personal preference is NOT to do it the way AwkwardMD does it, because to me, personally, it's too much. As a reader I don't want to see all that formatting. I like things to flow in as continuous and consistent a manner as possible and I find the excessive formatting distracting and overly attention-catching. But this is PURELY a matter of subjective taste. If you think that looks cool, then go for it.

I'd like to rebut this just a little. Something I've touched on elsewhere is that there's no such thing, within the human brain, as a "media consumption mode". There is no "as a reader". If you have used a phone in the last twenty years, you are familiar with the ubiquitous left-right orientation of text messages, and there's little difference between the presentation in my story and looking at your phone. You don't need to process the formatting any more or less than you would process the presentation of your SMS messages. Nobody has to look at their phone and actively resolve "which one am I?" Admittedly, Nojo's formatting is smoother than mine and I respect the crap out of that, but both of them waddle and quack and ask for grapes and that's enough.

No sane human being could watch bodycam footage of a bear mauling and not flinch, with their heart rate spiking and their sympathetic nervous system in full control. Nobody watches Bullitt and thinks "I'd have taken the 580 instead of the 880, and tried to get around in front of them. Force 'em off the road." We don't (normally) consume media with cool, rational distance. We experience it like it's happening to us, and there's value in playing into the experience, in having information appear like it would naturally.

I know firsthand that it's possible to go into a piece of media starting from a critical perspective, dissecting choices and deconstructing conversations in real time, but that's not really what we're talking about.

 

[AwkwardMD]

My "media consumption theory" is incomplete. It has holes. i'm not suggesting there's no such thing as preferences, and I'm still workshopping the concept. I think the underlying principle has merit though, so... maybe just consider what I'm saying before trying to rip it apart.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'd like to rebut this just a little. Something I've touched on elsewhere is that there's no such thing, within the human brain, as a "media consumption mode". There is no "as a reader". If you have used a phone in the last twenty years, you are familiar with the ubiquitous left-right orientation of text messages, and there's little difference between the presentation in my story and looking at your phone.

As one small data point, I'll mention that I've started to see this kind of formatting appearing in print books.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'd like to rebut this just a little. Something I've touched on elsewhere is that there's no such thing, within the human brain, as a "media consumption mode". There is no "as a reader". If you have used a phone in the last twenty years, you are familiar with the ubiquitous left-right orientation of text messages, and there's little difference between the presentation in my story and looking at your phone. You don't need to process the formatting any more or less than you would process the presentation of your SMS messages. Nobody has to look at their phone and actively resolve "which one am I?" Admittedly, Nojo's formatting is smoother than mine and I respect the crap out of that, but both of them waddle and quack and ask for grapes and that's enough.

No sane human being could watch bodycam footage of a bear mauling and not flinch, with their heart rate spiking and their sympathetic nervous system in full control. Nobody watches Bullitt and thinks "I'd have taken the 580 instead of the 880, and tried to get around in front of them. Force 'em off the road." We don't (normally) consume media with cool, rational distance. We experience it like it's happening to us, and there's value in playing into the experience, in having information appear like it would naturally.

I know firsthand that it's possible to go into a piece of media starting from a critical perspective, dissecting choices and deconstructing conversations in real time, but that's not really what we're talking about.

I think it's a matter of personal preference. When I read a story I'm in a different mode from when I read text messages. I read text messages all the time so I'm familiar with the format and don't even think about it when I'm reading them. I'm somewhat "old school" as a reader of stories, however, and I prefer minimalist formatting. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm increasingly outnumbered on this point.

I'm not ripping anything apart. There's nothing wrong with your doing it the way you do it, or the way nice90sguy does it. It's just not my preference.