Preparing story files

[z119z]

This may not be the right place for this post, but the intent is to help make story files more readable, and since this is the forum for hints on improving files, it seems the best location for these comments.

Many of the stories here are hard to read because the posting program ignores the formatting imposed by word-processing programs and adds some of its own. Most of the stories appear in italics, for example, because the program has an embedded italics code at the beginning. Many of them have no paragraphing. Here are ways to get around these problems:

1. Each posting begins with the poster's screen name followed by

writes "[first word of story]

The quotation marks at the beginning can be confusing because they make it appear that the story begins with a quotation (of course, when the story does begin with a quotation, the beginning reads

writes ""[first word of story])

The text of the story starts immediately following the quotation mark, which also runs together the author's name and the story.

To avoid this, add two or three line spaces (press enter two or three times) at the top of the file, before the story begins. This will result in a story file that begins:

So-and-so writes"

[First word of story]


The close quotation mark corresponding to the open quotation mark after writes appears at the end of the posting. There is no way to delete this, but you can separate it from the posting by adding one or two extra blank lines at the end.

2. Quite often the visible signs of paragraphs--indentions, extra line spaces--are missing from the posted stories. Some word-processing programs have a standard (normal) style that automatically adds extra space after each paragraph, which makes an empty line space appear after each paragraph, thus visually separating the paragraphs. On screen it appears that there are two carriage returns at the end of each paragraph, but in reality there is only one. This formatting disappears when the story is posted, and the paragraphs end up as one long block of type, which can make them hard to read.

To avoid this, add an extra paragraph marker at the end of each paragraph. Either hit "enter" twice at the end of each paragraph to insert two line spaces (I find this difficult to remember to do) or when you have finished writing the story, use the "find-and-replace" function to insert the extra line spaces. In MS Word, for example, in the "find" box, type in

^p

and in the "replace with" box, type in

^p^p

This will supply the needed extra carriage returns, and in the posted story file, there will be a visible line space between paragraphs.

3. Italics: The posting program apparently has a "begin italics" code embedded at the beginning. I find large swatches of italics annoying and hard to read, and until Sarnoga or ocntrl post a "henceforth you will love italics files," I will continue to do so. The posting program requires that the poster preview the file before submitting it for posting. The preview file shows no italics, which can deceive the poster into thinking the story will appear in roman type.

To turn the italics off, type in: (to prevent the posting program from reading the following formatting codes as instructions to turn the italics on and off, I had to add spaces after the initial angle bracket. When actually using these codes, do not add this space)

< /i>

at the beginning of your text. If you subsequently wish to italicize a particular word or phrase within the story, type in

< i>

before the word or phrase to appear in italics, and then add

< /i>

after the word or phrase to turn off the italics and revert to roman type.


4. What about a forum dedicated to discussing the stories?