: Re: How to format common words that are made "special"? In my novel, there's something that the characters refer to as "darkness". It symbolizes the bad thoughts of depressed/suicidal people.

@Harper186

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Honestly, I think you're good with whatever style you choose, as long as you're consistent. As far as your options go:

Italics. Do not use if you need it for other things that are typically typeset in italics such as biological proper species names.
Capitalization. Only disadvantage can be that it comes with a certain level of personification. As in, the expectation that the 'Darkness' has a certain identity. To take the example of the Ring from Tolkien, the Ring is clearly shown with it's own will. By no means is this a solid rule, but it's definitely a trend that has developed in modern usages of capitalized terms.
Small caps (or technically petite caps). I like them, but they are pretty rare nowadays and might feel out of place (can't remember seeing them in a modern novel for ages).
Different font. Especially with a word like 'darkness' you can use a dark font to stylize that single word each time. Depending on the genre of the work it actually can give a pretty neat feel, although this is more commonly used to signify an entire class of things or the speech of a specific character.

Personally I think I would go with italics or petite caps if it's just a platonic concept, capitalization if it has it's own will or a different font if it's more than that (super natural for example), but I don't think there are any really wrong choices here.

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