User blog:RedNovaTyrant/Caps or Italics? How I Prefer To Use Them

aNGRY POSTING TIME - No, not really. Just a personal, stylistic explanation for how I write once again.

In my last two stories in the Workshop, I've used all caps for certain portions of the stories. Now while I do understand and recognize the mass amount of caps abuse in bad CPs, I still prefer to use them. And rather than explain myself in a blog length comment on my reasoning every time someone mentions it, I decided to just do a blog post that I can link to instead. Passive aggression, amirite?

Nah, but first, still a thanks to those who make the comments. This also just gives me a reason to get on my soapbox and spout nonsense for a few minutes for once.

So, how do I treat all caps and italics? For me, it comes down to the connection between appearance and feeling. When I see something in italics, I usually read it in a softer, elongated voice. I drag the words out in my head, and they have a kind of echo to them. The kind of emphasis this poses would be something like a character's thoughts. Even if the character's thought is something like I'm going to kill that guy, when I see those quiet, slanted letters, it stills "sounds soft" to me. If you don't get what I'm saying, that's perfectly fine, I'm probably not making much sense anyways.

The feeling I get from ALL CAPS is one of demand. It's commanding and abrasive, it's in your face and stalwart. I always kinda go back and think of Big Brother's doctrines in 1984 when I see all caps: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. These words symbolize the unbreakable grasp Big Brother has on the citizens of Oceania, and how powerful his influence is. I still get that similar feeling any time I see caps lock - used PROPERLY, I might add.

So I guess a good example for this would be one of my newest stores, Choices. I used caps lock and italics in this for two reasons. The first was to distinctly separate the thoughts of the protagonist from "Wallace's" words. The other was to emphasize Wallace's power over the protag.

That's all I got. *tucks soapbox away under bed with the monsters* What do you think of this method? Good, bad, understandable, completely nonsensical? How do you use the two? I'd love to know. Alright, I'll see ya soon.