Writing letters within your work

[X Equestris]

I've reached a bit of a stumbling block in a short story I'm working on: I need to write a letter within the story, but I'm not sure how to format it. Should it be italicized? In quotes? Both? I've already looked on the Internet, but I can't find anything relevant to my problem. Normally, I would consider just summarizing the letter, but it feels like too much telling and not enough showing. Does anyone have advice?

 

[Penpilot]

I'm not sure if this is technically correct, but I would italicize and indent it. My reasoning for italicizing is the POV character is either reading or writing it so it's kind of like internal thoughts. The indentation is just to set it apart from the narrative.

 

[X Equestris]

I'm not sure if this is technically correct, but I would italicize and indent it. My reasoning for italicizing is the POV character is either reading or writing it so it's kind of like internal thoughts. The indentation is just to set it apart from the narrative.

That's what I was leaning towards, though I wanted to make sure.

 

[Butterfly]

I wrote a letter in one draft. I found some advice that said to indent it, on both sides so it is narrower than the actual page text, and to have a blank line before and after it and to italicise it.

Dear X Equestris

I wrote a letter in one draft. I found some advice that said to
indent it, on both sides so it is narrower than the actual page
text, and to have a blank line before and after it and to italicise
it.

B. Fly
​

Something like the above. unfortunately, I can't remember the site that gave that advice...

 

[K.S. Crooks]

I use italics and larger side margins for letter or book within the story situations. I have also seen people use cursive fonts to imitate hand writing. Which ever you use be sure to is unique from other forms used in your story.

 

[Vandor]

Patrick O'Brien used the manner described by Butterfly to great effect in his Aubrey-Maturin/Master and Commander series. It was easy to keep track of and reminded the reader of the context of those passages. I guess the italics also helped evoke the idea of written words.