Quote:
Originally Posted by Solitaire1
I think one way to deal with the issue is to include a short explanation of the use punctuation at the beginning of the book. That way, the reader will have an indication of what the author intended and it can also avoid confusion when using non-standard punctuation.
As an example, in stories I've written I've used [ and ] to surround text that indicates a character's thoughts, using them just like quote marks for text spoken by a character. At the beginning of the story I included a short statement indicating what [ and ] means, and also what other formatting/punctuation choices mean (such as Courier New for text that appears on a screen within the story).
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I tend to dislike books that have to be explained at the front of the book. If I see a lengthy list of characters, a long read this first before you begin or a 'special' language dictionary right at the front of the book then I think argghhh not this again.
In paper books I could easily skip by it. Not that hard in ebooks but it annoys me.
An appendix is fine with me, but I resent an author trying to make me learn who is what before I actually care, or telling me why they write a certain way and why it is better before I actually know if I like their writing. If I like the writing style, I probably don't care why, and if I dislike it is akin to someone telling me to eat something I dislike because
they think it is good for me.
Helen