Texting In Spn - Tumblr Posts

Thank you so much to everyone who's shared their opinions by voting, commenting, and reblogging, as well as all the lovelies in the @idlingintheimpalapodcast and @wincestbookclub Discord servers!

It looks like the overriding opinion leans towards writing the texts in what I feel the character's style would be. That's great, since that's how I've been working so far.

Just to muddy the water even more, however, I also thought I'd share this screenshot from 12x04 American Nightmare where we see Dean texting Mary.

Dropped comma after 'Hi', lack of capital on first 'mom'. It vibes with my headcanon that he leans on autocorrect for non-essential SPAG.

We also have a couple of examples of Sam's texting below, from 15x05 Proverbs 17:3 and 15x18 Despair.

He seems to lean on autocorrect as well, judging by a lot of dropped commas in the first image. It's not impossible that the correct SPAG in the rest is his work, but apart from the full stops/periods, it could just as easily be autocorrect intervention (apostrophes in conjunctions, capitals for new sentences).

Anyway, this is just me being super anal retentive and getting hung up on the details, as writers tend to do. I really appreciate all the feedback! I'd love it if you could keep reblogging for a larger sample size! Never hurts to see a broader demo in a poll. 😊

Thanks!

Fic Reader Poll: Text Messages

Okay, another poll for y'all. I'm writing a fic with a lot of text message exchanges between two characters (details below poll).

As a reader, do you prefer that the text messages are written with the same proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar (SPAG) as the rest of the fic? Or do you prefer to see the writer's interpretation of a character's 'voice' with a realistic texting style, e.g. typos, abbreviations, missing SPAG?

Please don't just vote based on your headcanon for how your blorbos would text. Vote based on what you find most enjoyable to read.

For reference, and if anyone would like to share their opinion with me about my specific situation, the characters are a semi-AU Sam and Dean Winchester (they're not brothers but they're still hunters in the SPN universe). I headcanon Dean as being fairly loose with his texting, rapid-fire short messages, not bothered with much more SPAG than autocorrect does for him. He'll correct a typo if he notices it. For Sam, I see him as a step above that, longer single messages, proper capitalisation and more punctuation, but not fussed with perfection.

So that's how I've been writing it so far. But having said all that, I don't want the reader to struggle to actually read these exchanges, especially since there are many of them. Conundrum. 🤔

Feel free to reblog (it would be appreciated for a larger opinion pool!) in any fandom/pairing, as it's not fandom-specific, just reader-specific. For writers who also read, please consider what you prefer to read, not what you prefer to write (assuming those aren't the same).

Thanks for any input, all! 💖