Switching between standard narrative and speaking directly to the reader

[GeorgeGlass]

I recently began writing a fanfic for The Loud House, a show on which the main character periodically breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the viewer. I would like my story to include this element, too, interspersed with the standard third-person narrative that will make up the bulk of the story. But I'm having trouble thinking up a quick and obvious way to signal readers that Lincoln is talking to them, rather than to the other characters.

One thought I had was to start the story with one of these talk-to-the-reader moments and put the text in italics or something, so that when readers next see text in italics, they will get the idea that Lincoln is talking to them. But maybe that's too subtle, too awkward, or too generic (given that italics can be interpreted in several ways). Any other ideas?

[BronxWench]

Actually, that could work very well. Italics can signal any number of things, as defined by the author. I use them for flashbacks, to good effect, but by opening with a talk-to-the-reader moment, you can define italics for those conversations.

[Darkalley_Muse]

It's an interesting idea. Not that I've tried it, but maybe you could use block quotes (triple " instand of singles) to make it more noticeable. Another idea, not sure how noticeable it might be, would be to have an overall page indent on the right side of the page for 'in-scene' paragraphs, left left side indent for 'meta' paragraphs. Would depend on the editor your putting the story in though.

As a friend looking over my shoulder pointed out, citations as done by Terry Prachett or Douglas Adams is also good for this, but sadly doesn't work well posting online I think.

Line break - meta bit - line break might work as well, if the meta parts are not happening too often.

[FairySlayer]

I like Darkalley_Muse's idea that most of the story is indented a bit to the right (but still left-justified) with Lincoln's narration fully on the left. Also, you may want to pick a different typeface for those interactions if you can make it look good. (In the dark ages of the '90s it was standard practice to use serif for one type of text and sans-serif for the other, but see what looks good of the available standard fonts if you're posting in-line.) Italics could work, but colors and such may be a bit overkill, IMO.

(Actually, this reminded me to fix the centering and asides for my "Hex-ican Fiesta" advertisement and Yang's commentary in Payback's a Pussy, which is a similar thing though only for that bit, not the bulk of the story as you're doing.)

In any case GeorgeGlass, I'm really looking forward to what you come up with.

[GeorgeGlass]

Great ideas, all! I think I will use the block quote/indented format plus a different font, which will free up italics for other uses. Thanks!