Hi Everyone,
I'm still newish to fanfiction and this just came up as a reply to one of my stories, so I thought I'd move it here for broader feedback. My problem is that I come from academia. I just can't reconcile myself to the idea of plagiarizing another author's words without
some way of distinguishing them in-line (even in a derivative work whose original source is in the public domain). I played with several methods available via html and settled on having quotes from Austen in
purple because I thought that this was the least jarring. I would like feedback though if readers prefer other methods.
Here are some options I found:
Footnotes:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.1Bold:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.Italics (If I do this, I can't use italics to indicate writing, thoughts, or emphasis which would take away some nuance): I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so
I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago.
A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.
Small caps:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.Different font:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.One of the reasons I liked the color option is that it allows me to distinguish between sources (I'm currently working on a crossover, for example). I could also try darker colors.
Darker Purple:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.Darker Blue:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.Darker Green:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.Darker Red:
I have been utterly unable to find a single moment alone with you and so I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall wait for you in the same location I posed this same question to you all those years ago. A word, a look, will be enough to decide my future happiness.1. Jane Austen. Persuasion, Chapter 23↩