Spaces after punctuation

[fifty5]

Me too. Completely agree. It helps the eyes separate the sentences. And if others disagree, then don't read my stories.

But Lit removes the extra space, which chaps my ass. So what the fuck, we are forced to conform... or not submit... whmm, would save much effort..

It may not be Lit, but HTTP - that takes any amount of 'white space' (space characters, tabs and carriage returns) as a single space. To obtain the traditional double space between sentences (which seem to me to help the reader) one not only needs two space characters, but one space plus one Non-break Space "&nbsp:"

The point (to me) is that the end of a sentence, when being read, needs a bigger pause than that between words. Similarly, the break between paragraphs needs to be even longer. To me, those aren't just typographic conventions, but ways to make text more easily readable for people who haven't read that text before (or trained at drama schools).

All authors (whether of business reports or Literotica) need a written 'body language' to help readers make sense of what has been written. A double space after a period (full stop, exclamation mark, or ellipsis(three dots)) isn't just a typographic convention, but helps readers to make sense out of what has been written - and thus helps authors too, to get their meaning across.

Issues about technology (typewriters versus the internet) are secondary. As I see it, the issue is effective communication: a double space after a full stop (period) or exclamation mark (etc.) makes text easier to read correctly, no matter whether the text in question is a business report or a sexy story.

Exactly the same criterion applies to paragraphs. It doesn't matter whether that are marked by a line break plus an indent, or by a blank line. The point is that one paragraph ought to be recognisably read as separate from its predecessor.

Using modern technology - and given the variable interpretation of a tab - a double carriage return is the simplest solution; just like a double space.

Interpretation by Lit - and its editors - is a different, though related issue. Authors, editors and the site need to be able to have confidence that the separations between sentences and paragraphs is clear to readers. That's true even if readers are in the middle of wanking off.

Doing less reduces the experience both of authors and wankers.

This isn't just a typographic debate - akin to how many angels can dance on the head of a pin - but is about down to earth issues of communication and enjoyment.

On sites that I run, double spaces are automatically reduced to a single space, but then those after a period are automatically replaced by '  '.

If I can do it, so can the scripts that accept submissions to Lit - and they should, IMHO, do so.

 

[Tx Tall Tales]

Funny thread.

I'm another 'touch typist' who learned the old fashioned way on a typewriter. Whenever I start typing fast, I find my thumb doing the old double-tap after the period. Old habits do die hard. Most of my stories have a few double spaces scattered around, and only during the grammar check in Word do I find them.

I write in a plain text editor - copy to Word for a grammar check (good at finding double words and such) - then recopy to the text editor before submitting. I found my Word submission in the story submission text box would occasionally have weirdness, and submitting a ".doc' directly took a lot longer to post.

I liked the suggestion about setting Word to auto-correct the double-space. Nice work around.

 

[sr71plt]

Funny thread.

I'm another 'touch typist' who learned the old fashioned way on a typewriter. Whenever I start typing fast, I find my thumb doing the old double-tap after the period. Old habits do die hard. Most of my stories have a few double spaces scattered around, and only during the grammar check in Word do I find them.

I write in a plain text editor - copy to Word for a grammar check (good at finding double words and such) - then recopy to the text editor before submitting. I found my Word submission in the story submission text box would occasionally have weirdness, and submitting a ".doc' directly took a lot longer to post.

I liked the suggestion about setting Word to auto-correct the double-space. Nice work around.

It only takes about 15 seconds to do a "find" (two spaces) and "replace" (one space) in anything in Word during review.