Quick question about manuscript formatting

[openthighs_sarah]

I know this is probably answered somewhere else on these boards, but I was hoping someone might have a quick answer for me.

I've submitted my stories in plain text format, assuming (hoping) that it might make things easier for Laurel -- less conversion necessary. If I do want to apply some kind of text formatting within a story, is it necessary to submit the manuscript as a Word document (or in some other related format)? The simplest thing for me to do would be to use HTML formatting tags within the text (such as for italics, bold, etc.) and keep the file in plain ASCII format, but I wasn't sure if this would actually complicate things on the other end. Not that important because I can do without formatting completely... but I was curious.

Any suggestions? (And thank you in advance...)


Sarah

 

[KillerMuffin]

The scripts are designed to work with Word. You should be able to, theoretically, take a Word document, then C'nP it into the window and have it transfer perfectly.

Formatting should be exactly like this post is. Word wrap on, no indentation, a space between each paragraph. Including dialogue paragraphs.

If you've got a word processor, don't use the bells and whistles. Turn off smart quotes, don't use the automatic spacing between paragraphs, skip the headers, and stuff.

If you've got italics in your text, use HTML. There's a wonderful tutorial on that in the Writer's Resources section. DON'T add any HTML to your work besides italics or bold face for emphasis. If you're submitting a poem you can use the <CENTER> tags. Leave everything else out because the scripts add those and whatever you stick in has to be manually removed.

Important! Don't have long strings of characters. If you've got separators in your text, keep them short. Don't let your orgasmic moaning (if you're into that sort of typing) carry on for more than oh, 30 characters. If Laurel doesn't catch it, then your text will bleed into the blue field and it'll look horrible.

 

[openthighs_sarah]

The scripts are designed to work with Word. You should be able to, theoretically, take a Word document, then C'nP it into the window and have it transfer perfectly.

Formatting should be exactly like this post is. Word wrap on, no indentation, a space between each paragraph. Including dialogue paragraphs.

If you've got a word processor, don't use the bells and whistles. Turn off smart quotes, don't use the automatic spacing between paragraphs, skip the headers, and stuff.

Thank you, KM! I was only thinking of italics anyway -- that's the only formatting I would expect to use in a "published" manuscript, either, so it makes sense.

Important! Don't have long strings of characters. If you've got separators in your text, keep them short. Don't let your orgasmic moaning (if you're into that sort of typing) carry on for more than oh, 30 characters. If Laurel doesn't catch it, then your text will bleed into the blue field and it'll look horrible.

Okay. My orgasmic moans are very understated, like literary hiccups. Or maybe hiccoughs. But thank you!

 

[MathGirl]

Tip

Thank you, KM! I was only thinking of italics anyway --

Here's a tip you might use, Sarah. I write my stuff in .rtf. When I use italics, I use a "[" to start italics and a "]" to turn them off. When I'm finished, I use the "replace" function to change them to <i> and </i> respectively.

I guess I'm an italics junkie, and I've found that makes the writing smoother than entering the codes as I go.

When I'm finished, I just "save as" a .txt file and submit. Seems to work fine.

Hope that helps, MG

 

[KillerMuffin]

I write in wordperfect and add the italics codes as is as I go along. Save it as a wordperfect file.

Then I submit it, click on pending, and check the story in preview to make sure none of the words ran together. Laurel has never complained to me. Then again, she never complains. At least not in public.

 

[openthighs_sarah]

Re: Tip

Here's a tip you might use, Sarah. I write my stuff in .rtf. When I use italics, I use a "[" to start italics and a "]" to turn them off. When I'm finished, I use the "replace" function to change them to <i> and </i> respectively.

I guess I'm an italics junkie, and I've found that makes the writing smoother than entering the codes as I go.

When I'm finished, I just "save as" a .txt file and submit. Seems to work fine.

Hope that helps, MG

Thank you, it does help... I switched over to Notepad for these stories because I didn't want the hassle of dealing with all of Word's stupid extra formatting (smart quotes, etc., as KM mentioned), but I hadn't thought of saving them as rtf files. Notepad is simple (read: dumb), but you don't really see what the story will look like on the screen.

And I will definitely preview it when I submit it, just to make sure I didn't goof.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Re: Tip

Notepad is simple (read: dumb), but you don't really see what the story will look like on the screen.

You can preview your story before submitting it. See my How To Essay http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=57781

 

[openthighs_sarah]

Re: Re: Re: Tip

You can preview your story before submitting it. See my How To Essay http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=57781

Thank you! Very good essay, concise and well-written, and I'll definitely try out what you suggest.

~sarah

 

[SexyChele]

I've only submitted one story that had any sort of formatting to it (italics), and I uploaded it as a Word document. I'm not certain what extra work went into it from the technical side, but it took 4 days instead of 3 to post. There is a warning that it might take longer, but if it is only one day I figure that isn't too bad.

Like the suggestions here, though. I'm just so used to working with Word, that's my only problem!