Writers: Would you ever consider including emoticons in your writing?

[Katy Rag Doll]

I think that it would take a very intelligent and talented writer to get away with using emoticons. Picasso was perfectly capable of painting realistic still lives, but after a while he chose to experiment. I think if a person used emoticons they would have to have mastered creating emotion through more traditional prose first.

I'm open to experimentation but I don't think that I would like to have emoticons in a story of mine, unless it was in an IM conversation or something, which so far I've never included in my work.

I know you're not asking for opinions on your idea, but it does seem interesting. You've obviously thought a lot about this and that's the kind of mind set that I think could pull it off. Interesting question

[RatManSonata]

NOOOOO!!! Emoticons are an inferior way of communicating in literature. There is nothing wrong with them for texting and such, but then you're not supposed to sound like an author. For one thing, would it be better to say "The disaster made Joe sad. He ran away." or "Joe ran from the building, tears running down his face"? Well, it would be even worse if you said "The building exploded.:~( Joe ran away."

Another more important thing is, it will thoroughly degrade literature. Writing has always been quite a bit more formal than normal conversation, but if we start using "lol" and emoticons, eventually (and I admit, this example is a bit extreme but it's just an illustration) an average book will be "Ok so i was walking around the corner and i saw Jeremy and he looked so stupid with his new hat lol)!"

But the real reason not to use emoticons (I expressed something like this before) that it will ruin the basis of the basic structure of writing, the reason we don't write like we talk on the Internet already. Formal writing is a means of expressing ourselves in a clear and poetic way. You could argue that that's what poetry is for, but novel and short story writing is not held to the same standard of poetry, and is held to an even higher standard of clearness, which will be lost when we replace all these many synonyms, phrases and sentences that express emotions with ":)".

Pros: Well, one might argue that it puts you more in the character if he's a less-educated, less-expressive teen or something, but I personally think there are better ways to put that in words. I can't really think of any other good arguments. You could say that it's fine because people put that in writing all the time on the Internet, but... I said "good."

Yes, I would divide it if it were to appear, but I wouldn't be so rude as to call someone's book "low writing" for using a couple smilies, despite how strongly I feel. I just sympathize writers who get picked on in such ways. I would call them "formal and "informal."

If I WERE to use emoticons in writing, I would use them for characters who have trouble expressing themselves. I have a funny, kinda dumb guy who doesn't communicate very well from one of my stories. Here's an excerpt with added emoticons:
"I can't believe that **** stole my wallet!X( I knew she was up to no good. We all knew she was up to no good. She said she was up to no good. Several times, in fact.:/ I can't believe I didn't see this coming!:O