Formatting broadcast dialogue

[TadOverdon]

FWIW, I did some searches on the forum before starting this thread and didn't run across an answer - and Google turned up very little.

So, is there a customary way to format dialogue occurring on a TV, radio, etc. to separate it from other text? The examples I've seen use block quotes and italics. Block quotes are not a good idea, I suppose, for ePub book format.

I'm thinking regular quotes and italics. I think I read somewhere that the literotica mobile display doesn't support italics, but I do use them in my writing.

The example would be something like:

The image cut from Ruiz to prerecorded video, a long pan of warehouse shelves stocked with colorfully branded opaque plastic bottles and boxes of different sizes, all neatly labeled with names like "Arginine Powder" or "Amino Complex" or "Biotin 5000." Matthews read the voiceover live:

"Mikaela, over three-quarters of Americans say they use some form of non-prescription medicines, dietary supplements or herbal remedies at least once a week. And if you're one of the growing millions getting your vitamins online, chances are that you're buying them from Jon Chase."

Etc.

 

[KeithD]

Haven't seen authoritative guidance yet to treat it any differently from other quoting. the explanation would be in the characterizing blurb given. Your example introduces what the quoting is. I've seen it both with italics of the text, as your example, and just inside double quotation marks. Either seems to be clear, and publishers currently are minimizing the use of italics.

 

[MillieDynamite]

FWIW, I did some searches on the forum before starting this thread and didn't run across an answer - and Google turned up very little.

So, is there a customary way to format dialogue occurring on a TV, radio, etc. to separate it from other text? The examples I've seen use block quotes and italics. Block quotes are not a good idea, I suppose, for ePub book format.

I'm thinking regular quotes and italics. I think I read somewhere that the literotica mobile display doesn't support italics, but I do use them in my writing.

The example would be something like:



Etc.

I've started a story that is a recording of psychologist therapy season, once it is the patient only talking I **** and use standard first person story writing.

Subject 1024’s Recorded Therapy Session Number 54
10 AM Wednesday, October 4th, 20**

Sounds of a door closing. Footsteps moving from the door into the room. The squeaking, creaking sounds of someone settling into a leather couch or chair.

“What happened to you?”

“Miss Adventure.”

“Why do you do these things? They’re dangerous, they’re illegal, and you’re a married man.”

“Always have, before Shelia, well before we met; I discovered most women don’t enjoy my bends and won’t satisfy them. But whores, man, a fucking prostitute will do anything you ask, give them a little more money if they resist, and the gal is up for anything. The women don’t expect to be wined and dined, don’t put you off for another time, they yield, and some of them let you kiss them.”

Long pause.

“Well, what happened this time, to constitute you being so, what shall I say, disarrayed?”

“Okay, I’d intended to talk about something else to you. With this said, I should give you the straight skinny, I suppose. Monday night…—”

 

[ElectricBlue]

"I'd treat it as normal dialogue, and identify it as a radio broadcast by context," the announcer said. The radio crackled with static.

"I wish I had FM," commented Johnny.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

There is s tag cloud you can use to see the nost searched tags by category.

Blow job. And blow-job return different results.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I have a different question on formatting. In some of my stories, where I use italics this formatting is there at publication. Other times, it isn't. I know we have no bold that will survive, at least I can't seem to find one where it has. But I like to have thoughts in italics. Any suggestions on way to save the story where this formatting survives the conversion?

 

[GinnyPPC]

I have a different question on formatting. In some of my stories, where I use italics this formatting is there at publication. Other times, it isn't. I know we have no bold that will survive, at least I can't seem to find one where it has. But I like to have thoughts in italics. Any suggestions on way to save the story where this formatting survives the conversion?

If you put html tags around your section that needs formatting it will work. Of course, don't forget to close your tag(s) when done

Bold = <strong></strong>
Italics = <em></em>
Center = <center></center>

You can see examples of these in my stories, they are in all of them. Sometimes in combination with each other.

Also, the following post has some good technical tips on this and other formatting as well. http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=93396004

 

[MillieDynamite]

If you put html tags around your section that needs formatting it will work. Of course, don't forget to close your tag(s) when done

Bold = <strong></strong>
Italics = <em></em>
Center = <center></center>

You can see examples of these in my stories, they are in all of them. Sometimes in combination with each other.

Also, the following post has some good technical tips on this and other formatting as well. http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=93396004

What I was really wanting to know, *.docx sometimes retains formatting and sometime doesn't. What about RTF does it help to convert to and *.rtf format?

Edit: I did save a guide if I don't find a way to submit and have it keep the formatting. I don't generally have the kind of time that formatting it manually will take.

 

[GinnyPPC]

What I was really wanting to know, *.docx sometimes retains formatting and sometime doesn't. What about RTF does it help to convert to and *.rtf format?

I submit formatted text. I use a site called textfixer which has a convert word doc to html function. I have to do a bit of editing after that (centering) but it does the rest.

I think because of this, my stories have been going up in about 3 days, where some of my friends are taking more than a week when submitted via a word doc.

 

[NotWise]

There is s tag cloud you can use to see the nost searched tags by category.

Blow job. And blow-job return different results.

I think the tag cloud is for the tags most used by authors rather than the most searched by readers. You can also break them down by category and time period.

If you want to be confused, compare the list of the "most-used" tags with the tag cloud.

Regardless of whether the cloud is most-used or most-searched, it makes sense to refer to the tag cloud when tagging a story.

 

[GinnyPPC]

I don't generally have the kind of time that formatting it manually will take.

Sorry, I forgot to address this in my last post. It takes me less than five minutes to use the website I referenced to do the conversion. I spend a little longer reviewing it on the preview page and making minor edits and corrections. The one thing it does not like are centering tags, those I have to manually put in.

I copy my text from word, paste it into their window and then copy out the resulting HTML formatted text and drop it into Notepad++. In there I use the find and replace function to get my centering correct.

Feel free to PM me if you have further questions on my process.

 

[RejectReality]

There is s tag cloud you can use to see the nost searched tags by category.

Blow job. And blow-job return different results.

Those aren't searched tags, they're author used tags.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Sorry, I forgot to address this in my last post. It takes me less than five minutes to use the website I referenced to do the conversion. I spend a little longer reviewing it on the preview page and making minor edits and corrections. The one thing it does not like are centering tags, those I have to manually put in.

I copy my text from word, paste it into their window and then copy out the resulting HTML formatted text and drop it into Notepad++. In there I use the find and replace function to get my centering correct.

Feel free to PM me if you have further questions on my process.

Thanks, I'll check this site out.

So centering did work. I can work on that when I'm back on my own stuff!

 

[gordo12]

Sorry, I forgot to address this in my last post. It takes me less than five minutes to use the website I referenced to do the conversion. I spend a little longer reviewing it on the preview page and making minor edits and corrections. The one thing it does not like are centering tags, those I have to manually put in.

I copy my text from word, paste it into their window and then copy out the resulting HTML formatted text and drop it into Notepad++. In there I use the find and replace function to get my centering correct.

Feel free to PM me if you have further questions on my process.

I'm not getting all this extra effort with manual HTML. Word and every other editor I know of does that automatically when you highlight text and choose your whatever. Bold, Italics, center etc.

I submit the Word (.doc) file directly and have never had a problem here with the result on publishing. I can't even imagine a reason to cut and paste a story in. Not to mention the underlying code already contains the tags when you do that. Unless you're using something like Notepad.

I've never used the .RTF format for submission but it sure seems like you're doing a lot of extra work for nothing.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm not getting all this extra effort with manual HTML. Word and every other editor I know of does that automatically when you highlight text and choose your whatever. Bold, Italics, center etc.

I submit the Word (.doc) file directly and have never had a problem here with the result on publishing. I can't even imagine a reason to cut and paste a story in. Not to mention the underlying code already contains the tags when you do that. Unless you're using something like Notepad.

I've never used the .RTF format for submission but it sure seems like you're doing a lot of extra work for nothing.

Word is not HTML. The usual Word file format these days is .docx, which is based on XML. When you submit a .doc(x), Literotica converts it to HTML coding, and while that conversion usually works correctly, sometimes it fucks up. For instance, two of my stories have poetry in them. One of them formatted fine, the other one lost the line breaks for some of the poetry so it's all run together.

You can't preview when you submit a Word doc, so you're taking the gamble that it will convert okay. If it doesn't, then your story will post mis-formatted, and then you'll be waiting a long time to get an edit through if you even can.

Manual coding gives you the opportunity to preview the story and check that it's displaying the way you want to.

 

[gordo12]

Word is not HTML. The usual Word file format these days is .docx, which is based on XML. When you submit a .doc(x), Literotica converts it to HTML coding, and while that conversion usually works correctly, sometimes it fucks up. For instance, two of my stories have poetry in them. One of them formatted fine, the other one lost the line breaks for some of the poetry so it's all run together.

You can't preview when you submit a Word doc, so you're taking the gamble that it will convert okay. If it doesn't, then your story will post mis-formatted, and then you'll be waiting a long time to get an edit through if you even can.

Manual coding gives you the opportunity to preview the story and check that it's displaying the way you want to.

Thanks for that explanation. I've never worked much with Word over the years so I'm not familiar with those problems. I only knew the center tag wouldn't work cause I could never get the Epilogue heading in the story to center when it was published. I use the word 93 (doc) format and so far hasn't been a problem. I understood it was the preferred format here and an book industry standard.

But I sure wouldn't want what you're describing to go wrong.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks for that explanation. I've never worked much with Word over the years so I'm not familiar with those problems. I only knew the center tag wouldn't work cause I could never get the Epilogue heading in the story to center when it was published. I use the word 93 (doc) format and so far hasn't been a problem. I understood it was the preferred format here and an book industry standard.

But I sure wouldn't want what you're describing to go wrong.

When html goes wrong it can go spectacularly wrong. I had one story where some italics code coincided with a Lit page break - an uncontrollable thing - and the entire second page turned into italics. Which sort of failed the intent. Luckily I'd read the story within hours of it going live (I had a feeling about dodgy format ahead of submission - about something else), and realised what had gone wrong, and put in a quick fix. Since then, I've kept italics and bold down to a bare minimum, and now use context to delineate thoughts or texts, emails, whatever. Plain text wherever possible.

 

[Bramblethorn]

When html goes wrong it can go spectacularly wrong. I had one story where some italics code coincided with a Lit page break - an uncontrollable thing - and the entire second page turned into italics. Which sort of failed the intent. Luckily I'd read the story within hours of it going live (I had a feeling about dodgy format ahead of submission - about something else), and realised what had gone wrong, and put in a quick fix. Since then, I've kept italics and bold down to a bare minimum, and now use context to delineate thoughts or texts, emails, whatever. Plain text wherever possible.

I think the italics thing can be avoided by tagging each paragraph separately (Lit won't page-break in the middle of a paragraph break) but it's a bit more work.