Member-only story
What’s Wrong with Italics?
Girl realizes she’s being too dramatic.
A critique I’m bound to hear in any given workshop I submit for is “easy on the italics.”
Sue me, I’m a dramatic person who likes being dramatic in my writing. I like emphasis, I like desperation, I like things to stand out. However, this italics ideology I have doesn’t seem to stand in court. According to peers, I use italics so often to the point that it distracts from the story.
When I heard that my beautiful italics were detrimental to my stories, I was gagged. I was also offended. I became defensive immediately, of course, and told myself that other people just don’t get it.
I first got this critique last semester in my intro to fiction workshop on my story about a magical, evil forest and a reluctant future king. Because the story was so fantasy-focused (and, also, about the desperation that comes with grief), I decided that the people in my class just really hated whimsy. In my defense, not many people in that workshop submitted speculative fiction, and as someone who submitted 3 spec fic stories, I already felt like an outsider. Being alone in the fantasy genre made me very defensive of it- and therefore the italics I used to showcase the whimsy.
