Story submission formatting

[RagnarHairyBreeches]

I’ve only submitted three stories. So, I’m relatively new here.

I use Libre Office as a word processor. In Libre Office, when I start a new paragraph, a blank line appears between paragraphs. I didn’t set it up that way. That’s the default.

So, I copied the text into the form for submitting to Lit and the same space that was between paragraphs in the word processor was also present in the submission form. Good! That’s what I expected.

With my second submission, it was exactly the same. Well, what else?

However, with my third submission a few days ago the blank line between paragraphs (that was present in Libre Office) was no longer in the submission form. Bugger! I don’t recall changing any setup in the word processor, so I was wondering if anything has happened to the submission form. And was wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

Tedious, fixing it, but not a big deal. I read the draft through a few times in Lit’s submission form in draft mode, and entered carriage returns where appropriate, but as I said, tedious. I’d rather not have to be doing this every time. What's your experience?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I also use LO, and my experience has also been inconsistent.

Finally, I turned off LO's automatic paragraphs and press Enter twice for each new one. It's less annoying than having to reformat the entire story when I submit it.

--Annie

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

I've got a tool that might help. I created it for my own stories, but use it if you see fit.

https://waxphilosophic.sdf.org/LitMark/

1. Write the story in LibreOffice
2. Do an export as HTML
3. Drag and drop the HTML file onto the textbox of the formatting tool.
4. Copy the result into the Lit submission box.

Click on the ? on the toolbar to get more detailed help and a bit about what works well and what doesn't.

 

[RagnarHairyBreeches]

Thanks for both suggestions. I found it weird the first two went up okay, but not the third.

Computers usually do as their told, and problems are usually the user (ie. me). I may have tweaked something, but I don't think so. Maybe LO came out with a patch between submissions (but I don't recall). That's why I wondered if it was the submission form Lit uses.