How to reduce spacing between paragraphs?

[JackFrostFire]

Hey all,

How does one reduce the spacing between paragraphs in selected parts of a story? The Literotica story default looks like roughly 1.5 lines between paragraphs, which is fine for general prose. But I want narrower spacing (like 1.0 lines between paragraphs) where the story includes text messages. Literotica paragraphs are defined using the HTML <p> tag, so presumably I could use <br> tag to narrow the spacing, but I submit my stories in MS Word. I prefer not to submit a 10,000 word story in HTML, and even if I did, I don't know if <br> would work properly.

Here's an example of the look I want:
------------
Max said, "Damn, I need to text Maggie."

Leo replied, "I don't know, it's after midnight."

Max said, "It's fine." He dug out his phone and started texting Maggie:

"U there?" he typed.
Maggie didn't respond right away. Sleeping for sure, Max thought.
Finally a text came back: "sup?"
Max: "I want to apologize"
Maggie: "FU"

Max groaned, "I should do it in person."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Ya think?"
---------------

(In this forum system, all paragraphs are 1.0 apart, so I had to use double-spacing here to represent 1.5, but you get the idea.)

I'm sure someone has dealt with this before, but I couldn't find any posts on it. Thanks for any help!

- Jack (JackFrostFire)

 

[ElectricBlue]

You can't. Literotica determines the publication layout, you have no say.

You need to put two returns at the end of every paragraph, but the spacing is all up to the site.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Provided it was not going to create a lot of extra work for the site, you could always put a note in the administrative box when you submit your story. I've done that on occasion to prevent double-spacing for small sections and Laurel has made it happen. YMMV for an entire story, of course.

 

[Emirus]

I read everything on my phone and find the spacing between paragraphs, whichever system I’m reading in, is exactly right for me. Reducing the distance between paragraphs I would find very aggravating.

I have a gripe with the beta format that’s being tried out that, although I write comments in paragraphs, when they show up there’s no break between the paragraphs and you can’t put a heading. I put a comment about it to Manu in tech support but haven’t received a response as yet.

Also in the existing system I detest it when someone writes a hundred word, or more, comment as one paragraph. But at least properly written comments are spaced. Stories, and comments in threads, are the same. I ignore long blocks of text so I’ve no doubt I miss some very good comments. I must miss some good stories as well because I give up when it’s lots of long paragraphs.

Rant over!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The site controls everything via it CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The only formatting options you have are via html tags and only a very few of them. <b>,<i>,<u>,<center>, and maybe <blockquote>.

And like Ruben mentioned <br>.

And as far at the Android app, all html is stripped out as well.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Hey all,

How does one reduce the spacing between paragraphs in selected parts of a story? The Literotica story default looks like roughly 1.5 lines between paragraphs, which is fine for general prose. But I want narrower spacing (like 1.0 lines between paragraphs) where the story includes text messages. Literotica paragraphs are defined using the HTML <p> tag, so presumably I could use <br> tag to narrow the spacing, but I submit my stories in MS Word. I prefer not to submit a 10,000 word story in HTML, and even if I did, I don't know if <br> would work properly.

It's certainly possible, or was when I submitted this one: https://www.literotica.com/s/red-callum-sweet-cate

That said, I agree with Ruben that the example doesn't look great. What you have there is a bunch of very short paragraphs, and they should be punctuated like paragraphs IMHO.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's certainly possible, or was when I submitted this one: https://www.literotica.com/s/red-callum-sweet-cate

Looks like the usual spacing on my browser, in the new beta.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Looks like the usual spacing on my browser, in the new beta.

I'm seeing single spacing between lines within a stanza, 1.5 spacing between stanzas.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

I'm assuming the purpose of the single spacing is to set the texts apart from the rest of the paragraphs. There's something from your example I'm not understanding, though, if you're only trying to make a distinction text on the phone and narrative or dialog.

Max said, "It's fine." He dug out his phone and started texting Maggie:

"U there?" he typed.
Maggie didn't respond right away. Sleeping for sure, Max thought.
Finally a text came back: "sup?"
Max: "I want to apologize"
Maggie: "FU"

Max groaned, "I should do it in person."
​

Only the two lines in blue are what I'd expect from the format you're going for. The other lines treat the texts like regular dialogue. Whatever you do to make a stylistic distinction for texts, it probably only ought to be applied only to texts conveyed in the name:message format. For an exchange as short as that one, it would make sense just to handle it all like dialogue ("Max typed his apology. Maggie's reply was instant: 'FU'")

If the text exchanges aren't long, you could consider italics instead of spacing to set them apart. I'm not sure you need quotation marks if you change the style.
I'm not sure about that. Another possiblilty would be a leading character:

> Max: Come on, Babe. Don't be like that.

> Maggie: Screw U

> Max: I can explain.​

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Per the Chicago Manual of Style...

CMOS makes no special recommendation for formatting text messages in formal writing, more or less taking for granted that they will be treated the same as other quotations, either within quotation marks in line with the main text or set off as a block. This is standard practice for academic books and articles, reports, and other kinds of no-nonsense nonfiction:

In one notorious scam, the manager texted the horses’ names the day before the race in order of win, place, and show: “green fancy, dollop, stand by me.”

The same treatment can be used in a novel, but because quotation marks are strongly associated with spoken words, text messages in fiction are often styled in italics or bold or a different font, whether run-in or set off as a block:

When her phone finally chirped, the text was short: Joe’s at 10?

Read the whole thing here

 

[JackFrostFire]

Thanks everyone for the extremely useful discussion, which indicates maybe I shouldn't attempt narrow paragraph separation at all, because 1) not all browsers display 1.0 differently than 1.5 no matter what I do in the HTML, and 2) using narrower widths and the colon/tag mix isn't a great treatment of texting anyway.

This is the actual, longer conversation, which is quite a bit complex due to pauses and pics (and perhaps ridiculous). I use italics instead of colons. I don't use the tag "typed" for Maggie since the POV is Chloe (btw they're lesbians).

That night in bed, Chloe began fingering her pussy while imagining it was Maggie's tongue. The fantasy was tantalizing but she found herself wanting the real thing. So she texted Maggie just after midnight.

"U there?" she typed.

Maggie didn't respond right away. Probably sleeping, Chloe thought.

Finally a text came back: "sup?"

"Can't sleep," Chloe typed.

"Really?"

Chloe needed to sound a lot dirtier. "My cunt wants to date your tongue – is she interested?" Of course autocorrect kept trying to change "cunt" to "can't" or "cent."

Maggie didn't miss a beat. "Hold on let me check." After 10 seconds, she came back with, "My tongue says YES"

Chloe laughed out loud. "Send me a pic if she's not shy"

After half a minute, a photo arrived from Maggie, showing her mouth with her tongue out, à la Rolling Stones. She followed it with "She wants you"

Chloe loved it. She typed a laugh emoji and then "6y, my place after school tomorrow, forget Liz, just you"

They ended the exchange with a couple more emojis.

Chloe felt honest affection for Maggie, which was unusual for her. She got herself off easily with the tongue pic, knowing the real thing would be in her pussy soon.​

I know, teens are probably more concise, which is another problem. But I find that on newer iPhones, it's easy to be verbose.