My likes and dislikes as a reader

[Dountnothere]

I can read a bad grammar and my brain autocorrects from years of using MTL. However, formatting and syntax is where I draw the line. Because when there are no line breaks it makes me go cross eyed trying to read walls of texts. Your story might be great n’ all and have all the tags I like, but I won’t read it ‘cus of bad formatting.

Dialogue tags, dialogue quotes, or lack there of in both or one.​

I’m fine with single quotes since that’s a uk standard and it’s at least one is better than none. Or worse, the - at the beginning and nothing at the end to signal when they stop speaking.

I also dislike when people write the reply in the same paragraph of two ppl talking. But also don’t tell me who’s talking if there’s more than 2-3 people talking. Just do a line break it’s that simple! It seems so basic and I just want the bare minimum at least. If reading slop at least my slop is accessible/readable.

 

[Corty]

Sooo... You like reading like everyone else. Gotchu.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

I trialed a number of different ways to format and do dialogue. then I came up with what I use.

At first, I wanted to format all my text just like the paperbacks I had read. But really, no blank line between paragraphs.
I can understand in a regular novel, there;s paper to save and printing costs. But in the digital world? Why.
so the first thing I did was I'm having a blank line between paragraphs. Easier on my eyes, probablye asier on every reader's as well.

I gave up on what I call "inline" dialog and all the nitpicky rules.
Every line of dialogue, is a separate paragraph, no matter what. blank line between, too.
easy to read, easy to follow. There's no paper costs to preserve now.

 

[c37]

I trialed a number of different ways to format and do dialogue. then I came up with what I use.

At first, I wanted to format all my text just like the paperbacks I had read. But really, no blank line between paragraphs.
I can understand in a regular novel, there;s paper to save and printing costs. But in the digital world? Why.
so the first thing I did was I'm having a blank line between paragraphs. Easier on my eyes, probablye asier on every reader's as well.

I gave up on what I call "inline" dialog and all the nitpicky rules.
Every line of dialogue, is a separate paragraph, no matter what. blank line between, too.
easy to read, easy to follow. There's no paper costs to preserve now.

Add the speaker's action and dialogue tag before the blank line above the dialogue, and boom, it solves the problem.

 

[Eldoria]

I can read a bad grammar and my brain autocorrects from years of using MTL. However, formatting and syntax is where I draw the line. Because when there are no line breaks it makes me go cross eyed trying to read walls of texts. Your story might be great n’ all and have all the tags I like, but I won’t read it ‘cus of bad formatting.

Dialogue tags, dialogue quotes, or lack there of in both or one.​

I’m fine with single quotes since that’s a uk standard and it’s at least one is better than none. Or worse, the - at the beginning and nothing at the end to signal when they stop speaking.

I also dislike when people write the reply in the same paragraph of two ppl talking. But also don’t tell me who’s talking if there’s more than 2-3 people talking. Just do a line break it’s that simple! It seems so basic and I just want the bare minimum at least. If reading slop at least my slop is accessible/readable.

Dialogue tags are less aesthetically pleasing, but they're necessary for reader navigation.

 

[Ararara]

"I have something to say.
"And furthermore, something else entirely."

I would call that old-fashioned, and unusual to see in webnovels. Even though it's technically correct. Personally I find it ugly

 

[Ararara]

"Webnovel." Jeeezus. The term makes me want to spit. Oxymoron. Novels are old-fashioned, and that's not what we're doing here. SH is more honest about what it is hosting. We're not writing novels. We're writing "fictions."

Webserial, webfic, webnovel, we use the terms interchangably.

 

[Dountnothere]

  We do. Brave new world. Even the euphemisms have euphemisms. The planet isn't boiling fast enough, so Global Warming is called Climate Change now. The madness is rife.
  All those terms you've mentioned are variants of an old idea. Vanity press. Anyone can post anything now and ram it down the throats of an uncritical and undiscriminating world. Give it a smut tag, and no one cares. Formatting? Screw it. No one reads anymore, so formatting's obsolete and unneeded. People listen, at triple speed, and call it immersive reading. More bullshit euphemisms to mask our dumbing down and regressive infantilism.
  What the hell? Who turned on the indenting? Gawd, is this ugly.
  Ugh. end of rant.

I don't see the point of indenting online or in my essays anymore. The ones I turn in these days don't use it. I only Indent if I'm doing a block quote.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Writers ought to know what they're doing, yeah. But readers must understand basic grammar, too.

When quotes appear at the beginning but not at the end, this means the same speaker continues to the next paragraph:

"I have something to say.
"And furthermore, something else entirely."

Sheesh. The whole damn world's going to hell.

I've only seen two versions of editing software that recognized that - and one was an older version of MS Word, when the next one failed to recognize it.

 

[Rosica]

I've only seen two versions of editing software that recognized that - and one was an older version of MS Word, when the next one failed to recognize it.

Why MS Word? Not MR Word?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Why MS Word? Not MR Word?

Because "MicroRoft" doesn't roll off the tongue. Or rather it does, then bounces on the floor, flops around like a dead fish, and then expires.