arbitrary story editing

[JLCC]

I recently submitted a story in which I used 3 carriage returns between different scenes. As the story was published, I observed that the two extras were removed, leaving the flow from one scene to a different one just a bit less discernible.

I had done this very thing on different chapters of the story and they were accepted, no problem.

Is there an issue with multiple consecutive carriage returns?

 

[unregistered]

 

[redzinger]

Yep, this has happened to a couple of mine. Sometimes the gaps remain, sometimes they disappear. I submitted a couple of stories recently, the first was fine, the second has been affected.

I've used '***' on some stories to guarantee a break.

 

[oggbashan]

Frequently I have to adjust <cr> s during preview because the settings I use in Word get lost when I cut and paste.

 

[sr71plt]

Literotica is, in essence, a running literary journal. Certain formatting is imposed on everything across the board for some semblance of unified read across the collection (e.g., font, font size, margins). Literotica is very loose on this, but apparently it wants visible (and therefore clear) section dividers, not multiple carriage returns. The pretty standard one is return/* * * */return as a separation.

 

[JLCC]

"The pretty standard one is return/* * * */return as a separation."

Interesting. In the feedback section, another author advised against this in another story, though it may simply have been my application.

 

[sr71plt]

You might look at the file yourself. You'll be able to pick up the general standardizations. (You might also look at the story files of those giving the advice--it's often clear who knows what by what they've gotten through the process and how recently.) Multiple carriage returns is just unclear to an editor/reader on what your intent was.

 

[Mushrom]

This type of thing is actually fairly standard, and done automatically.

I am not sure if it happens here, but a lot of places I post in remove the double space I put in between sentences. For those of us that learned to type "old school" on typewriters, this was standard and natural for us. But a lot of online forums and sites will automatically remove the extra space, it is just how the software works.

And like somebody else said, I have long used a series of * to separate out "sub-chapters". If it is a break between scenes but not a full chapter break I put in 4 or 5 asterisks, and that does the trick just fine.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You will notice that multiple spaces as well as CR's are removed from your posts here in the forums. The same is true over on the story side.

The standard(not really so standard) scene separator has been...

Scene One

* * * *

Scene Two

Although I have seen any number of special characters used as the separator.

You can also add a few HTML tags that will be used in your story....

Scene One

<center>* * * *</center>​

Scene Two

The other tags are...

<i></i>
<b></b>
<u></u>
<blockquote></blockquote>

FYI

 

[JLCC]

I did find out blockquote is not allowed.

 

[TxRad]

I did find out blockquote is not allowed.

It works fine the way ZC posted it on the story side.

 

[JLCC]

I was rejected recently because of it, explicitly citing block quote, not improper use.

I just went and looked though, and I probably assessed the inclusion of multiple CRs via the presubmission preview. None of my posted stories have them.

I will probably start including an asterisk or something because, at least to my eye and brain, there has to be something between different scenes.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I was rejected recently because of it, explicitly citing block quote, not improper use.

I just went and looked though, and I probably assessed the inclusion of multiple CRs via the presubmission preview. None of my posted stories have them.

I will probably start including an asterisk or something because, at least to my eye and brain, there has to be something between different scenes.

If you try to use the extended version of he blockquote tag:

<blockquote site="http://example.net/armstrong/">
<p>That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.</p>
</blockquote>

Then you will be rejected.

Using the just the plain <blockquote>text</blockquote> will be accepted as this in the only way to indent text in a story.

You should use the acceptable, not only here, but other outlets, the following:

<center>* * * *</center>

 

[JLCC]

Not that I didn't want to accept Zeb's assertion, but I had to check; I know that a rejection included grounds as <blockquote></blockquote>.

Irrespective, I see a recent thread where Laurel specifically says that it has not been deprecated.

I am going to have to try next time I write.

Thanks all, for the advice on separations.

 

[sr71plt]

There's really no reason for a serious author to be using a lot of bells and whistles formatting anyway. (Not that block quoting is beyond standard formatting.) So no real sympathy here for any compelled to design the hell out of something being posted to Literotica. As I noted, it's functionally an on-line journal, which, for the sake of the readers' comfort in getting to the context, should be uniform in format across the collection.

 

[JLCC]

Serious author? Whew. I am in luck then.

I do agree though. Very little fiction I have read included much more than chapter numbers.

 

[sr71plt]

Actually, what you've read has involved a lot of formatting decisions. That you don't notice them, as a reader, means they were successful decisions.

And, yes, going wild with book design is definitely not an indication of a serious author. In the publishing world, the author rarely has any say on book design at all--for very good reasons.

 

[legerdemer]

Not that I didn't want to accept Zeb's assertion, but I had to check; I know that a rejection included grounds as <blockquote></blockquote>.

Irrespective, I see a recent thread where Laurel specifically says that it has not been deprecated.

I am going to have to try next time I write.

Thanks all, for the advice on separations.

I had a similar very recent experience with a poem, where I tried to use the block quote html code to indent some of the lines of the poem. It was rejected. I took out the formatting attempts and it went right in. No biggie, I guess, but it did change the poem for me. (It was non-erotic, btw.)

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I haven't used blockquote lately, but the thread you mentioned about Laurel saying it was still acceptable I read that to mean the simplest form is acceptable.

Blockquote would be the equivalent of indent in VB code.

<blockquote>This is the text that I want indented.</blockquote>​

Maybe she decided to block it's usage after I informed the authors that multiple combinations of the blockquote tag pair indent five characters for every pair.

<blockquote><blockquote>text</blockquote></blockquote>​

would indent the text 10 characters.

Could be...she does tend to change her mind on a whim.

 

[robertreams]

The same thing will happen with many e-publishers. More than one or two returns will be ignored. You can set up a special format under formatting and use that to position the piece wherever you want, then name it in case you want to do the same thing again.

 

[redzinger]

Just to clarify, what use is blockquote in a Lit story, and does anyone have an example story where it has been used? Thanks.

 

[TxRad]

Just to clarify, what use is blockquote in a Lit story, and does anyone have an example story where it has been used? Thanks.

I've used it to offset a letter or a note within a story.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, a letter or use of a long passage quote. In the mainstream world, any quote of over eight lines should be done in a block quote. Rather than trying to bother with that at Lit., though, I put letters and long quotes in italics and add a line feed to set them off.

 

[RejectReality]

Here it is in use on Lit. I used it to set off the "documentary" portions of the story.

http://www.literotica.com/s/documentary-cougar

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I also believe you can use the non-breaking space here at Lit.

 

So, you could put a series of these between paragraphs to set it off from others.