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prinsesorlando

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I've published for the first time and noticed that one single line break becomes two <br> (line breaks) in the site.

This totally destroys the lay out of the story and makes dialogs look like a bunch of paragraphs.

Is there a way to stop this.
 
prinsesorlando said:
I've published for the first time and noticed that one single line break becomes two <br> (line breaks) in the site.

This totally destroys the lay out of the story and makes dialogs look like a bunch of paragraphs.

Is there a way to stop this.
Click to expand...

The basic line/para break format for Lit is para return, one return between paras.

The site determines and standardises the published format, so any writer "layout" is irrelevant. You use the site format or you don't use the site, it's that simple.
 
I copy pasted from a file with shift breaks and paragraph breaks.

If that is irrelevant it is impossible to write decent dialogue en to structure the story in paragraphs.
 
Everyone else manages to do it, ergo it's not impossible.

Might be worth having someone else look at your raw document to help you figure out what your document should look like
 
No I'm afraid electricblue66 is right, I see it in all the stories I've checked so far.
https://www.literotica.com/s/my-fall-and-rise-ch-01

All dialogue lines look like paragraphs.
And there are a lot of one line paragraphs, which seems unrealistic for stories.

If that is the one and only rule and a writers layout is irrelevant, I'm afraid I have to take his advice: "don't use the site, it's that simple".
 
prinsesorlando said:
I've published for the first time and noticed that one single line break becomes two <br> (line breaks) in the site.

This totally destroys the lay out of the story and makes dialogs look like a bunch of paragraphs.

Is there a way to stop this.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure what you and everyone is on about but there is a faint possibility. I write using Word and then change it to .rtf for submission. I upload the story from the folder on my pc. I do not copy and paste. Whether this makes the slightest difference I have no idea. However just in case I can help look at my story Sandstone Cottage. Ignore the story itself and the errors but start at paragraph 14 and tell me if that’s what you want your story to look like.

https://www.literotica.com/s/sandstone-cottage
 
I've never minded having the dialogue separated as paragraphs with line spaces, but I'll experiment with just having the line breaks and see how that looks.

The convention in printed works is usually to have paragraph indents (including dialogue) on the first line but no extra line spaces. I'm not sure that would work here.
 
prinsesorlando said:
If that is the one and only rule and a writers layout is irrelevant, I'm afraid I have to take his advice: "don't use the site, it's that simple".
Click to expand...

That may be good advice. The author isn't the layout designer, and the guiding principal of layout for an anthology, which this Web site basically is, is to standardize the look for the reader. It isn't all about the author here. The Web site is the layout designer here. It's worked for hundreds of thousands of authors here and your idea of how formatting of dialogue should work seems highly individualistic. It might be a good idea to find someplace that caters to your preferences (which may not happen until you put up your own Web site for it).
 
prinsesorlando said:
No I'm afraid electricblue66 is right, I see it in all the stories I've checked so far.
https://www.literotica.com/s/my-fall-and-rise-ch-01

All dialogue lines look like paragraphs.
And there are a lot of one line paragraphs, which seems unrealistic for stories.

If that is the one and only rule and a writers layout is irrelevant, I'm afraid I have to take his advice: "don't use the site, it's that simple".
Click to expand...

The story in that link is correctly formulated, isn't it? It seems to follow the conventions. New paragraph for each line spoken by a different person. One-line paragraphs aren't "unrealistic" at all. It may be done for any number of reasons. When it's dialogue, it's quite common practice.
 
prinsesorlando said:
I've published for the first time and noticed that one single line break becomes two <br> (line breaks) in the site.

This totally destroys the lay out of the story and makes dialogs look like a bunch of paragraphs.

Is there a way to stop this.
Click to expand...
Use HTML and paste your text in the Story Box when submitting it. "My European Summer Vacation" uses quite a bit of HTML for formatting. About halfway down on the first page, I blockquote the lines to a song, with no gap between the song lines.
 
Within some restrictions, yes. You can't make the story appear on the blue half of the page, and you can't insert flash animations, but you can do basic formatting if you get your scripting right. One of my stories uses alternating left and right justification to show a text conversation so that I wouldn't need to be explicit about who said what.
 
Last edited:
prinsesorlando said:
Ok... thanks. I will try that than.
Click to expand...

Remember that some devices, from what I read here whenever the subject of formatting comes up, strip all html out of the text, in which case the result could end up a complete mess. Lots of people read on phones, portable devices, not PCs - and many people set their own formats on those devices anyway.

What's so precious about your format that the site's default presentation won't do? It's text to be read, not a greetings card. Bold, italics, centering, simple justification is all you really need, surely?

Just write the words, I reckon. It's the Guttenberg Bible, not The Book of Kells.
 
electricblue66 said:
Remember that some devices, from what I read here whenever the subject of formatting comes up, strip all html out of the text, in which case the result could end up a complete mess. Lots of people read on phones, portable devices, not PCs - and many people set their own formats on those devices anyway.

What's so precious about your format that the site's default presentation won't do? It's text to be read, not a greetings card. Bold, italics, centering, simple justification is all you really need, surely?

Just write the words, I reckon. It's the Guttenberg Bible, not The Book of Kells.
Click to expand...
All of my stories use some HTML formatting. I've never had any complaints.
 
8letters said:
All of my stories use some HTML formatting. I've never had any complaints.
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean that HTML is supported on all devices--only that no one has bothered to complain to you if they've found you stories difficult to read on these devices. So, that isn't exactly a denial of the point or even a reason not to give it consideration.
 
KeithD said:
That doesn't mean that HTML is supported on all devices--only that no one has bothered to complain to you if they've found you stories difficult to read on these devices. So, that isn't exactly a denial of the point or even a reason not to give it consideration.
Click to expand...
I'm saying that there's no evidence that I've seen that my use of HTML has been a problem to my readers. I used to take seriously that there were some readers who might not be able to see the HTML formatting in my story and for a while I put a message at the start of my story saying that it'd be best to read the story in a browser. I stopped doing that because no one ever said there was a problem. My stories have been viewed over 2.8 million times and have received almost 1,000 comments.
 
8letters said:
Use HTML and paste your text in the Story Box when submitting it. "My European Summer Vacation" uses quite a bit of HTML for formatting. About halfway down on the first page, I blockquote the lines to a song, with no gap between the song lines.
Click to expand...

I think - and this might be what the original poster is dealing with - that the story preview appearance doesn't always exactly match the final appearance on the site. I am referring to the appearance in browsers, but I've never looked at a mobile phone version.

The issue does seem to come up with the paragraph/line breaks/blockquote formatting. I put in my own HTML so I'm going to experiment a bit more. It does seem that line breaks (shift-enter) sometimes are converted to paragraph breaks. At least that's what seems to happen. (By coincidence, I've noticed that when trying to format song lyrics.)
 
I don't understand what the problem is. On this site, paragraphs are separated by line breaks. It's just the standard format. Once you start reading stories here, you get used to it and you don't notice it. What's the big deal? Your story looks like everyone else's here.
 
SimonDoom said:
I don't understand what the problem is. On this site, paragraphs are separated by line breaks. It's just the standard format. Once you start reading stories here, you get used to it and you don't notice it. What's the big deal? Your story looks like everyone else's here.
Click to expand...
In the story I'm currently working on, the MMC narrator is listening to a friend Joanna and something Joanna says triggers the MMC to remember two things his sister said. So I want the story to look like:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Joanna said, "Blah, blah, blah."

The first thing my sister said.
The second thing my sister said.

Joanna said, "Blah, blah, blah."
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

That middle part is doable using HTML:
<i>The first thing my sister said.<br>The second thing my sister said.</i>

If you don't use HTML and instead put the second thought right after the first, I think the middle lines get concatenated:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Joanna said, "Blah, blah, blah."

The first thing my sister said. The second thing my sister said.

Joanna said, "Blah, blah, blah."
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
I don't think that looks as good.
 
8letters said:
The first thing my sister said.
The second thing my sister said.

.
Click to expand...

Why is it important that the two lines be pushed together without a line between? If the second sentence doesn't immediately follow the first on the same line, then, for the reader, the natural thing would be for it to appear as a new paragraph with space between, since that's what readers here get accustomed to.

I can sort of understand, from the author standpoint, wanting it to look a particular way, but readers here get accustomed to certain conventions, and nobody's going to notice it if it conforms to the way things are usually done. It will have no impact on the reader experience, I think.
 
SimonDoom said:
Why is it important that the two lines be pushed together without a line between?
Click to expand...
They have the commonality that they are things the sister said in the past though they are completely different statements. They are unlike the paragraph before or after them. Putting them together and having them in italics visually does that for the readers.

It's really easy to use HTML tags to get the exact look I want in a story. As far as I can tell, there are no downsides to using HTML tags in a story. Why not do it?
 
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