Why Do People Hate Emoticons, Text Lingo In Novels?

Question

People on Y/A authors and books keep saying NOOOOO,don't EVER use wth in your writing of a novel. But says who? I feel like times are changing and OMG, teens younger people r using text lingo more and more.

There are cell phone novels and books like 'ttyl', 'ttfn', and 'l8r,g8r' by Lauren Myracle. Cell phone novels take up half of the best sellers lists in Japan, and films are being made from cell phone, text message "novels".

R people who are against txt lingo just a little old fashioned? What about freedom of expression in a novel. We can't all write the same. What about different types of writing. J.D. Salinger writes completely different than William Burroughs and Marguerite Duras. Everybody is different. So why these so-called "rules" thrown at us by different people here in books and authors? Text authors have no right to be heard, even if only a portion of their work has text lingo?

Additional Details

I find text lingo a little more fun lately. Nothing to do with lazy, just fun. At least to me.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

On one hand, of course, anyone *could* write a novel using netspeak. Nothing wrong with that.

However, the main question is: What would be gained?

English is a wonderfully expressive language; how would a novel be improved by using net lingo? Unless the net lingo is an integral part of the story, using it limitings the book's audience to people who understand netspeak. It'd be like writing a novel in Yiddish; while you certainly can, and there are plenty of people who speak it, you're limiting your audience in a way that doesn't gain you anything.

Now, if the netspeak is important to the book itself -- as it is in, for example, Train Man (Densha Otoko) in Japan -- then netspeak is great, and indeed netspeak *is* used in those published books. So you need to find a story in which using netspeak is important and helpful in some specific way, instead of just stylistic sugar.

To your point about different authors' styles -- those styles are important to the way their stories work. Raymond Chandler's breezy, punchy style is integral to the dark noir adventures he wrote; similarly, Edgar Rice Burroughs' expansive style perfectly fits the stories of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. The style needs to fit the tale being told.

In my humble opinion, at least. :-)

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Agreed! If text speak is appropriate for the story. I'm on the fence myself & glad u showed both sides of the coin. Thank u to all who answered!

Answer 2

No, I think it's not classy in any way, shape or form. It's annoying and if someone is going to be lazy and not spell the whole word or words out then they shouldn't be writing a book. I am 15 and I love good grammar.

Answer 3

I think a large part of it is tradition. As for chatspeak, the English language is officially a certain way, and changing it for convenience goes against the rules of the language. Chatspeak looks bad, and essentially it's lazy. But then again, we abbreviate all sorts of things officially for different purposes. Maybe eventually certain chatspeak phrases will be official, and no longer considered untraditional or lazy. Don't hold your breath, though.
Emoticons, however, simply aren't cutting it. It's better to write "He smiled" than to put ":)". It just is.

Source(s):

http://www.abbreviations.com/

Answer 4

All grammatical rules keep order.

Writers have a responsibility to keep things as clear as possible for the reader. Text lingo serves to confuse. Besides, the English language has more words than any other language, and they are beautiful words that express much thought and ideas. Text lingo, on the other hand, express brainlessness and laziness. George Orwell believed that language exhibits a great power in society. I agree with him. The better language you use, the clearer thoughts your readers will have, and the better off society will be. Though it is acceptable to use text lingo on occasion to perhaps characterize somebody or a group of people, novels that make excessive use of it are probably not worth reading.

That is why I disagree with text lingo in novels, or anywhere at all, as a matter of fact. To modify Treebeard's maxim: if something isn't worth taking the time to type it out all the way, then its not worth saying at all.

Answer 5

There are just these rules, you know? I mean it's fine to write cell phone novels that way in text lingo because they're meant to be that way but novels or any literature for that matter has to adhere to some kind of rules and I don't mean the style of writing. It's like grammar- you can't change the rules no matter how advanced or tech savvy you get.
And it's not about lazy or fun but you aren't writing your school reports or college application in text lingo are you?

Answer 6

The answer is quite simple. Text lingo is a lazy way of writing and it can be misinterpreted. If you want to be heard as you put it then I suggest you write in a way that editors can understand first. Editors of publishing houses are not teenagers and neither do they appreciate trying to work out what someone has written when half the letters are missing. If you want to write in text lingo that is your prerogative but don't expect too much when it comes to trying to get published. Maybe some of us are old fashioned but don't expect everyone else to change their standards just to suit you.
It is true that some novels already have text lingo included but then again again I have read novels and poetry that included Latin, German, Greek, Chinese, Japanese etc but the meanings of the words are made clear. That doesn't happen in text lingo. Don't forget ; If you want to be heard then you must be understood.

Answer 7

Nobody's hit gold yet?
It's the same reason you don't write, "me and my boy were going to the cinema," or "Yo! What's up?" I asked the stranger.
It doesn't translate. Lingo like that can change. It can become outdated.
It's like slang. Things that were popular to say 20 years ago don't translate as being popular anymore. Some phrases from 3 or 4 years ago have even died.

Answer 8

Freedom of expression is one thing, but using text lingo to replace actual writing is lazy. If you're making something about the text messages an integral part of the story, and making a statement about a culture that's attached so strongly to their technology, that's one thing -that could actually be really cool. If you're just writing your book and throwing in text messages and emoticons for no reason, though, that's sloppy, shallow writing.

Source(s):

I'm a book reviewer: http://www.examiner.com/x-13594-Clevelan…

Answer 9

The answer is quite simple. Text lingo is a lazy way of writing and it can be misinterpreted.

Answer 10

No one says it's "against the rules" it's just that while I'm reading a novel I would rather read words than have to figure out what the letters mean. "TTYL," "TTFN," and "L8TR G8TR" do have text lingo in them, but also personally, I don't think they are very well-written books. It's just easier and nicer to read words.

Answer 11

I really dont like emoticons in books because it makes the story seem corny. TTYL was ok because the whole book was done in emoticons. I hate books that have things like OMG or Oh no she didnt it is very annoying and cheesy. I like good gramar.