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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46614
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46614
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Although +1 to Cyn, I would write it as prose, with italics for the words and the commonly used descriptions or character representations of any emoticons (since more than a handful of graphics is quite frowned upon in novels; publishers don't like them).

In other words, describe it as the character reading it, sees it. If there is a laughing face instead of XD, tell us what she saw, don't translate it to characters. Same with a crying face, wink, or wide-eyed happy face; if you didn't see OwO don't translate the wide-eyed happy face to OwO.

Do not make the mistake of thinking the shorthand of emoticons has to translate to a similarly brief message in a novel: Readers don't mind reading. The novel is not to be read in "real time", or the same amount of time it took the characters to _experience_ the scene. It is okay to write several words (or even sentences) to describe what in reality would be a momentary sensation or feeling. We do this all the time when describing sights and sensations, we can spend a page on describing what a character saw in a half second.

I would go ahead and write it out.

> Alex's phone dinged, and switched to George's thread. "L8" then two cars and a shruggie.
> 
> _Stuck in traffic._ Alex responded, "10m?"
> 
> George responded, thumbs up.

Original score: 3