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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/14380
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

When I write a chat dialogue in a novel, how should I format it? Since it is not direct speech, it obviously needs no quotation marks, but should I use italics, repeat the names, or how else is chat dialogue conventionally marked up in fiction?

* * *

**Examples**

Quotation marks look too much like face-to-face or telephone communication:

> Then she flipped back over to the Facebook page and sent him a friend request from Facebook.
> 
> Judith: "Okay Terrance, I have you all dialed in now. You seem legit. What kind of photo shoots you want to do? Bikini or business suit?"
> 
> Terrance: "Nah, strictly professional. Kind of like stock photo shooting. I just want to get some head shots of you, and talk about some other things that we can do in the local market. I don't want to come off as a player."

No markup looks like a typesetting mistake:

> Then she flipped back over to the Facebook page and sent him a friend request from Facebook.
> 
> Judith: Okay Terrance, I have you all dialed in now. You seem legit. What kind of photo shoots you want to do? Bikini or business suit?
> 
> Terrance: Nah, strictly professional. Kind of like stock photo shooting. I just want to get some head shots of you, and talk about some other things that we can do in the local market. I don't want to come off as a player.

Italics look awkward somehow:

> Then she flipped back over to the Facebook page and sent him a friend request from Facebook.
> 
> Judith: _Okay Terrance, I have you all dialed in now. You seem legit. What kind of photo shoots you want to do? Bikini or business suit?_
> 
> Terrance: _Nah, strictly professional. Kind of like stock photo shooting. I just want to get some head shots of you, and talk about some other things that we can do in the local market. I don't want to come off as a player._

So how is this done?

Original score: 4