discussion post: words and italics

[rodlox]

when should this be done to words?

think freely...use references if you like (but refs are not required)

Comments

[scarfman]

I believe that conventional usage of italics is for emphasis, story titles, character thoughts, other languages (familiar to the speaker or not) and sometimes quoting in lieu of quotation marks. Star Trek novels use them for filtered speech over comms, probably as a literary device to differentiate the speakers. Some authors use them for telepathic exchanges or other nonvocal verbalization.
Some fanfiction authors will put author's notes in their headers that go like, "Quotation marks indicate spoken dialog. Italics signify character thoughts. Double slashes indicate telepathic dialog. Underlining indicates spells spoken. Bolding indicated geas casting. Combined underlining and bolding indicates ...", and so forth. I find that very amateurish because, if you need all that and/or have to spell it out beforehand, then your writing itself isn't making it clear and needs work.