em dashes?

[egotist]

Hi editors!

I'm a first time writer and had my story recently put up. My volunteer editor helpfully pointed out that I was using hyphens in places where I should be using em dashes, probably because I submitted it in a plain text format. I heartily changed them all and submitted the changes as an edit (rtf format).

After the changes went in, I found that all the dashes appear as little squares instead. Is there a proper way to get all the dashes in?

The story in question is located at http://www.literotica.com/s/the-bandit-the-knight-and-the-lady

The offending symbols are near the bottom of the first page.

edit: I have the same problem for ellipses.

An additional question I have is how to convert this into a multi-part series. I have the second installment almost ready and am not sure how to properly link it up. I tried having the title changed when I submitted the edit, but somehow that didn't go through.

 

[Darkniciad]

File formats sometimes don't play nicely with Lit's text processor.

Don't let whatever program you're using auto-correct ellipses, just use standard full-stop (period) pips.
...

That should solve that problem.

As to em-dashes, those seem to process fine when generated in Word and copy-pasted into the "story text" box, or saved as plain txt and uploaded. In any other program, you're taking your chances.

I write in Wordperfect, and Lit's text processor interprets my em-dashes as double hyphens every time. The readers get what it's supposed to be, but it annoyed me.

What I've gone with is directly inserting the html special character code via a find/replace in the final .txt file I upload.

—

If you go that route, it will always generate an em dash, because it isn't modified by the text processor, but instead generated as html.

If you simply submit your next chapter with the same title and add Ch. 02 to the end of it, the Lit series coding will automatically catch it. If you really want to change the first chapter to read Ch. 01, then when you submit the edit to correct the formatting issues, put a note in the "notes" section of the submission saying that you want to correct the title as well.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, em dashes work fine on the easy button copy and paste into the submissions box.

A publishing ellipses has spaces between the dots. Publishers don't use the elipses code you'll find on a computer.

 

[egotist]

Thanks for the quick responses. Now I know what to do to fix it. It's a bit of a shame that it will look like that for the next three days till the changes go in.

 

[Darkniciad]

Yes, em dashes work fine on the easy button copy and paste into the submissions box.

Not when copied and pasted from Wordperfect. Believe me, I tried. They show as em dashes in preview, then appear as double hyphens in the final posting.

Lit's text processor is obviously designed around Word, and any other program's special characters are more likely to come out wonky.

 

[egotist]

Whatever the case, I used the — method. I'm a techie by profession, so it's no trouble at all.

 

[DunsanysGhost]

What other HTML can we include in the txt file?

What other HTML can we include in the ".txt" file? I might prefer that to using Word.

Also, is attaching a ".txt" file equivalent to pasting text into the box on the story submission page?

 

[Darkniciad]

What other HTML can we include in the ".txt" file? I might prefer that to using Word.

Also, is attaching a ".txt" file equivalent to pasting text into the box on the story submission page?

Yep. Uploading .txt is exactly the same as copy/paste as far as the system is concerned. It will process it the same, generating a preview ( demonstrating any allowed html ).

You can use <b>, <i>, <center>, <blockquote> as far as tags, and html special characters. Pretty much every other tag will be stripped out of the file, and if there's anything the text processor can't strip out automatically, you'll get a rejection.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

As to em-dashes, those seem to process fine when generated in Word and copy-pasted into the "story text" box, or saved as plain txt and uploaded. In any other program, you're taking your chances.

I write in Wordperfect, and Lit's text processor interprets my em-dashes as double hyphens every time. The readers get what it's supposed to be, but it annoyed me.

What I've gone with is directly inserting the html special character code via a find/replace in the final .txt file I upload.

—

If you go that route, it will always generate an em dash, because it isn't modified by the text processor, but instead generated as html.

If you simply submit your next chapter with the same title and add Ch. 02 to the end of it, the Lit series coding will automatically catch it. If you really want to change the first chapter to read Ch. 01, then when you submit the edit to correct the formatting issues, put a note in the "notes" section of the submission saying that you want to correct the title as well.

Dark, I also write in wordperfect, but I save my final draft as a word document. I upload the word file, rather than cut and paste. All the formatting works fine, including em dashes.

 

[Darkniciad]

Dark, I also write in wordperfect, but I save my final draft as a word document. I upload the word file, rather than cut and paste. All the formatting works fine, including em dashes.

But you can't preview.

I actually use the preview as the final step in my editing process. The change in margins, font size/face, screen position, etc. has made errors stick out to me like a sore thumb many a time.

Not to mention that tweaking opening notes/paragraphing can allow you to have pages end in specific places if you're lucky -- mini cliffhangers.

Uploading blind just doesn't work for me.

 

[estragon]

I have to upload my stories and poems as Word files, despite the inability to do a final preview. I am not sufficiently technically skilled to insert italics for thoughts in a cut-and-paste mode. So I have to go "once around the block" again before submitting, and even then I find I have to quibble myself.