writing format

[butterfly719]

I have a weird way of writing my stories, instead of writing how you normally see with paragraphs & such I write in script form. What I mean but script form is how you would read a script or like you read plays.

Example:
NIck: *smiles softly at the beauty as she walks up to his table*
Rene': Hello sir My name is Rene' what can i get you this afternoon?

Do you think people will understand this format & even more importantly enjoy a story written this way??

 

[sr71plt]

I have a weird way of writing my stories, instead of writing how you normally see with paragraphs & such I write in script form. What I mean but script form is how you would read a script or like you read plays.

Example:
NIck: *smiles softly at the beauty as she walks up to his table*
Rene': Hello sir My name is Rene' what can i get you this afternoon?

Do you think people will understand this format & even more importantly enjoy a story written this way??

You could give it a try and see. But you still need to put an extra line feed between paragraphs. A solid wall of text just isn't readable on a computer screen.

 

[Darkniciad]

I think you're going to have a tough sell. I haven't seen anything written in this format on Lit, so it's going to come across as unexpected when someone clicks. The closest I've seen are stories written in the style of chat transcripts.

You could always give it a try, but make sure you've got your skin toughened up before you post. I suspect that it will draw a lot of WTF? comments and low votes based upon the style of the writing, and that most won't get beyond the first couple of lines for the story to grab them and overcome it because of that.

 

[butterfly719]

I think you're going to have a tough sell. I haven't seen anything written in this format on Lit, so it's going to come across as unexpected when someone clicks. The closest I've seen are stories written in the style of chat transcripts.

You could always give it a try, but make sure you've got your skin toughened up before you post. I suspect that it will draw a lot of WTF? comments and low votes based upon the style of the writing, and that most won't get beyond the first couple of lines for the story to grab them and overcome it because of that.

I do expect that, a lot of it. I guess calling chat room format would be a correct description.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

i suppose that the context of the piece would be a deciding factor too. try it and see. cormac mccarthy does things his way and is pretty shit-hot with it, so ...

post a link if you do.

 

[JackLuis]

What you are talking about is the first step in communication of a story.
It's not bad, just incomplete and only considers the prime content of the story, rather that the full scope of the story.

If you write like you say, you have a very good outline to craft a story with smooth flow of the prime content and the detail for the reader to experience the full emotional feel of the story as you are writing it. I assume you can 'see/feel' the characters as you type, think, and imagine the story. If you short change the reader, they won't read it.
(as Dark explained.)

sr71 also made the point about formatting the text so it makes it easier for the reader, I concur, but add that you may also consider the format of the story, ( particularly in longer pieces) and consciously craft a Beginning, Middle and End, or a Crisis, Complication, Hero/Heroin Arrival, Resolution, or what ever form you follow.

As I said, with your script in hand, you just need to fill in the blanks, reformatting to provide the full feel of the story as it is pulled squirming from you loins, er, mind.

Keep writing though, butterfly.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I think you'll have a hard time selling this to your readers because of the lack of narration. In a play or movie, you don't need much narration, because the background is visible, but this is not so with strictly written work.

This used to work in the days of radio drama and sitcoms, because the listeners could use their imagination, but most people probably can't do that anymore, at least not well enough for them to continue reading your stories.

 

[butterfly719]

okay here is an exert to show you what im talking about. I do try to give lots of detail. I believe i started writing like this due to online rpgs & continued with other stories/rpgs i used to write with my friends in journals that we passed around. i hope this helps clarify my writing style.

Nick: * a battle worn man of about 6ft 6 with a body shape that is very atheletic, wearing dark leather armor. A very heavy looking sword hangs from his side as he walks into a worn down tavern named The Thirsty Sword, but the only one in the small village. He shakes the rain off and runs a hand through his brown slightly curly shoulder length hair.*

Rose: *a very pretty young woman with dark hair flowing down to the middle of her back wearing a simple green tattered peasant skirt, and a torn top that WAS white smiles warmly up at him from her shorter 5 ft fragile frame.* Hello sir please take a seat anywhere I’ll be right with ya. *she continues carrying a full pitcher & two pints of ale to a large table surrounded by four soilders and 6 woman all dressed in very rauncy clothing.*

 

[DeeZire]

If your desire is to post this at LIT, you might consider submitting a preliminary chapter of at least 750 words and see if it gets through. I have a feeling it's going to be rejected because of improper formatting, specifically, the lack of quotation marks and paragraph breaks for dialogue.

The section posted above reads just like regular fiction, except "is" is missing between "nick" and "a battle worn man..." If you made the narrator a storyteller sitting around a campfire spinning his yarn, you could get away incorrect grammar, but you'd still need to format it correctly to comply with the LIT approval system. I could be wrong about that, but they seem to run a pretty tight ship around here.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

can

i
post stories
using a style similar to

e.e.cummings?

 

[autoplot]

Personally, I'd stop reading almost instantly, but I'm sure that some readers will go for that sort of thing. Stylistically it reminds me of reading somebody's Sexual Roleplaying thread -- which is not a good thing.

 

[PennLady]

I'd probably not read it either after the first little bit. Just those samples are kind of jerky, and choppy, and do nothing to get me into the story. The descriptions of what they're wearing, their ages, is fine, except they are fragments, not sentences, and don't tell me much about the people.

DeeZire makes a good point about a potential rejection based on formatting as well. I'm not saying don't try, just be very aware you will face obstacles.

 

[Handley_Page]

I have a weird way of writing my stories, instead of writing how you normally see with paragraphs & such I write in script form. What I mean but script form is how you would read a script or like you read plays.

Example:
NIck: *smiles softly at the beauty as she walks up to his table*
Rene': Hello sir My name is Rene' what can i get you this afternoon?

Do you think people will understand this format & even more importantly enjoy a story written this way??

Are you writing a story or a script ?
Please heed the other experts. As configured in the example, it would turn me off very very quickly.
On the other hand, contact Raven Fox who is Very Interested in Audio work.

 

[lloyd_5]

I have a weird way of writing my stories, instead of writing how you normally see with paragraphs & such I write in script form. What I mean but script form is how you would read a script or like you read plays.

Example:
NIck: *smiles softly at the beauty as she walks up to his table*
Rene': Hello sir My name is Rene' what can i get you this afternoon?

Do you think people will understand this format & even more importantly enjoy a story written this way??

Nope! You must respect the medium you're writing for. TV/film script buys the staccato conversation because the camera fills in the detail. With written fiction you must paint the scenarios and background. A tad of IM, in context, can work but what you suggest is script not literature.

 

[avidreader_01]

I'd probably not read it either after the first little bit. Just those samples are kind of jerky, and choppy, and do nothing to get me into the story. The descriptions of what they're wearing, their ages, is fine, except they are fragments, not sentences, and don't tell me much about the people.

DeeZire makes a good point about a potential rejection based on formatting as well. I'm not saying don't try, just be very aware you will face obstacles.

couldn't have said it better myself

 

[sr71plt]

A think that DeeZire has a good point that the selection bot might reject it initially without punctuation marks. So, if you do it, I suggest you put a note in the notes box in the initial submission on what you are trying to do so that a human editor does the selection.

I'll go with the folks who say they probably wouldn't read far into it, but if you are experimenting with literary forms and not after accolades and a red H, I don't see why you shouldn't experiment with it, if you want. No new popular trend happens in literature without writers experimenting.

 

[beatrice_dreams]

can

i
post stories
using a style similar to

e.e.cummings?

tee hee

 

[sr71plt]

tee hee

The real joke is that he doesn't post stories.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The real joke is that he doesn't post stories.

Dear Reader

This is another cry for help from PILOT. One of many.

A reliable source tells me PILOT spent almost all of the 9th grade stuffed in his book locker.

 

[autoplot]

The real joke is that he doesn't post stories.

Just out of curiosity... why do you care? Is he ruining the AH's otherwise spotless integrity?

 

[lovecraft68]

Dear Reader

This is another cry for help from PILOT. One of many.

A reliable source tells me PILOT spent almost all of the 9th grade stuffed in his book locker.

Sorry JB, but you're wrong. Pilot would have been stuffed in the locker, had he not attended some wimpy little private school, where you knew who the tough kids were because they....
wore their shirts untucked!

 

[lovecraft68]

Just out of curiosity... why do you care? Is he ruining the AH's otherwise spotless integrity?

There's integrity here? Damn, guess this is another place I'll get banned from.

 

[autoplot]

There's integrity here? Damn, guess this is another place I'll get banned from.

I couldn't find an elegant way to express how sarcastic I was being, so I just let it stand.

 

[sr71plt]

Just out of curiosity... why do you care? Is he ruining the AH's otherwise spotless integrity?

But of course he is. Haven't you noticed? tsk, tsk.

You object to a chain yanker's chain being yanked? (If so, tough. )

 

[autoplot]

But of course he is. Haven't you noticed? tsk, tsk.

You object to a chain yanker's chain being yanked? (If so, tough. )

No, just curious, like I said. But thanks for the free helping of condescension. Oh, and for not actually answering the question.