Making your Fan-Fic easier to read

[Caustizer]

Lately I have been delving into some of the fan-fics people have written and i'm quite impressed with the time and the passion that has gone into some of the works.

In your mind these works are quite vivid and real, but in ours we only know what you write onto the page so heres a few grammar related tips and tricks to make them easier to read:

1) Space out your text. Its a lot tougher to read your story when its chapters are composed of a solid 20 line block. You lose your place and often read lines over and over causing them to lose meaning!

2) Whenever a new character speaks or a new event occurs (say littlefoot speaks then a nearby rock falls) make a line break and start a new sentance. Having speetch all shoved into the main block of text makes it tougher to figure out whos speaking.

3) Try to keep character speetch in character...no matter how out of character they may be!  Hearing things like ["Wow the sun is hot today, im thirsty" said Petrie] are quite out of character as they don't sound like something they would say. Take some time and grasp the subtleties of their language and try it like this: ["The great circle hot today! It making me verrry thirsty!" said Petrie]

4) Bold your character names so they can be easily seen, or just simply try doing a story script style! Makes it easier to see who is speaking or to pick up the names of the dinos involved.


And now for a bit of a fun point:


5) Write in Chomper and Ruby please!!! The newest official Land Before Time lore has them in the gang unless you are doing a past adventure. (In that case feel free to leave them out and ignore me)


Thank you and keep up the good writing!

[Serris]

I agree with everything EXCEPT bolding character names. That is totally unnecessary as I feel that using line breaks is enough to differentiate between speakers.

[raga]

I'm with Serris.  Your suggestions are great except for the bolded names, I just don't see the purpose behind that.

[Caustizer]

When you have multiple characters performing an action within a paragraph that also includes place names (the Great Valley, the Shining Rocks, the Thundering Falls etc.) if the names of the characters are bolded its easier to pick them out.

You are right about it not being needed if you use line breaks....Think of it as an alternative to spacing character speetch.

[DarkHououmon]

I can't really agree with bolding the character names either. I have never seen it done before and it would seem too strange to put them in. If you look around and read official works in the library, how often do you see the names in bold print?

[Malte279]

Personally I would just go ahead and write the way I would write a normal book without bold type names (if the story is so boring that without bold type names the reader won't take up who is involved while reading it then I reckon I should rather not write it in the first place) and especially without the spacing out of text.
Many ask for this, but I never understood why. Personally it annoys me like ... If I read a story spread out over 40 pages while there are just 20 pages of substance.

Because the writer felt,

that without spacing in every second line,

the reader might loose track,

of how far he has read.

Seriously, we don't need that spacing in books and I find it a lot easier to keep track of where I was if there are two or three spaced lines on a page than if there are dozens so the "landmark effect" of a spaced line gets lost because every second or third line is spaced. Same as with the bold character names, if the story cannot hook the readers attention enough so he can read 20 lines without getting lost, then I think something else than the format must be wrong.
In case of different characters speaking or any change in time, place or sense unit I agree that spacing is sensible. When there is none of the above I feel exaggerated spacing interrupts rather than helps the reading flow.

3) Try to keep character speetch in character...no matter how out of character they may be! Hearing things like ["Wow the sun is hot today, im thirsty" said Petrie] are quite out of character as they don't sound like something they would say. Take some time and grasp the subtleties of their language and try it like this: ["The great circle hot today! It making me verrry thirsty!" said Petrie]

Absolutely
I'll sign that one at any time.

5) Write in Chomper and Ruby please!!! The newest official Land Before Time lore has them in the gang unless you are doing a past adventure. (In that case feel free to leave them out and ignore me)

I have a story in mind which would answer quite a few of the questions concerning Chomper and Ruby left open by both, the sequels and the series. I may start writing it when I get done with my current university papers.

[Littlefoot1616]

As with everyone else, I agree that bolding proper nouns is not a correct method of constructing prose. Bolding is only really used for stress or emphasis on a particular word that is normally spoken by a character. Even then it's not really 100% perfect usage of written English.

E.g. "I don't believe it; It IS Cera!" said Littlefoot.

Even then, there are other ways of placing emphasis on words. I've seen stories using italics for emphasis.

I agree with Malte on the spacing point. As long as the entire story is just one massive lump of text, I see no major need for double spacing. Similarly, the use of double spacing just to up your page count is not something to be enforced.

2) Whenever a new character speaks or a new event occurs (say littlefoot speaks then a nearby rock falls) make a line break and start a new sentance. Having speetch all shoved into the main block of text makes it tougher to figure out whos speaking.

I'll agree with this to a point. Every time a new character speaks, there sentence should be on a new line. It helps distinguish one characters speech from another. But, I'd say, if the action is relative to what character is doing, it may not be absolutely necessary to place it on a new line.

E.g. "Look out!" Littlefoot cried, leaping to the side as the rock tumbled down towards them.

3) Try to keep character speetch in character...no matter how out of character they may be! Hearing things like ["Wow the sun is hot today, im thirsty" said Petrie] are quite out of character as they don't sound like something they would say. Take some time and grasp the subtleties of their language and try it like this: ["The great circle hot today! It making me verrry thirsty!" said Petrie]

This I agree with completely. It's important to keep a character's traits constant throughout the story. I've noticed little things like that in some stories like Ducky speaking with abbreviations or with use of apostrophes.  We all know that she doesn't speak like that. She always says "do not" instead of "don't" etc. Stories that have the LBT characters swearing and cussing I don't like. Why would they swear? They don't swear in the movies or the series so why do it in fanfics? It's so horribly out of character. In my stories, I have human characters slip the odd cuss word (nothing majorly offensive, no F, C or S bombs) but humans subject themselves to this kinda speech, the LBT characters do not. Therefore, they shouldn't say it. That's just my opinion and obviously not everyone's going to agree with that. But hey...each to their own right?  

As for the Chomper/Ruby stories, I will admit I have contemplated the idea of a fanfic involving them but I doubt anything will happen anytime soon seeing as I've already got a story project on the way already.

[DarkHououmon]

I forgot published stories aren't really spaced out. Online, there's a small space between paragraphs only because indentions usually don't work online (from what I've seen). But in books, there's no space; there's indentions to indicate a new paragraph. The only time there's a space is if there's a new chapter or if it's cutting to a new scene, I believe. However, even though the lines aren't spaced out except during new scenes and new chapters, books aren't really so difficult to read, in my opinion.

[Caustizer]

I think some people misinterpreted what I ment by spacing your lines out. I ment using proper paragraphs!

The main issue I was trying to address was solid blocks of text with no indentation.

[DarkHououmon]

I had a feeling that's what you meant. Online, a space between paragraphs is required because indention doesn't show up online (from what I've seen). But in written works, there is no space; just an indention to indicate a new paragraph.

[Malte279]

I think I'm totally misunderstanding something, but I don't know yet what you really mean. I interpreted the line

Its a lot tougher to read your story when its chapters are composed of a solid 20 line block.

to say that it would get tough to read a story if there are 20 lines of text without any space in between. Is that not what you meant?
Most of the stories I have seen on fanfiction.net have almost every second or third line left totally blank which I found made them very unwieldy to read. On the other hand it seems to be a point where views widely differ as the one story I posted there got criticism especially for lack of empty spaces (which I included only after changes in time or location which in case of dialogue may indeed have looked unwieldy).
What exactly do you mean? What is an indentation (I would understand it to be a short blank spate at the beginning of the first line of a paragraph usually achieved through the use of the TAB-key. I must admit that I have seen that one used excessively as well. In my opinion the beneficial effect gets lost if too many lines are indented).

[DarkHououmon]

Yeah, that's what an indention is, Malte. A small space put on the first line of text of the new paragraph.

As for the spacing out part, I think what he meant was putting a small space between paragraphs. I'll show an example of my latest fanfic to point out what I mean.

Darcy tripped against the floor of the ship and found herself stumbling forward. The ship had been struck with another powerful wave of water. As Darcey made her way down the corridor, she could hear the thunder crack outside of the boat and she could imagine the flash of lightning as the rain continued to pour mercilessly on the ship. And mixed in with the sounds of the storm, she could hear the cries of men as they either scrambled to get out of the storm or keep the ship from being capsized at sea.

Darcy tried to keep her footing by pressing her hands against the wall in a desperate attempt to retain some kind of traction. Water had flowed into this part of the boat. The floor was soaked and slippery. It was very difficult to move quickly without tumbling down. The waves that still slammed against the boat did not make things any easier for her to keep her balance.

As she struggled to get to the deck of the ship, many thoughts ran through her mind, too fast for her to comprehend individually. Thoughts of her father came to her mind and she bit her lip and tried to hide her tears. She missed him dearly and she had regretted getting on the ship in the first place. But amidst the chaos of the storm, her thoughts were so focused on getting to safety that she could not even remember why she got on.

Notice that there's a space between each paragraph. I think that's what Caustizer meant.

[Serris]

By the way, script style isn't really something I like.

[DarkHououmon]

By the way, script style isn't really something I like.

Yeah, me neither. FF.Net used to allow it, but nowadays has banned it. I think other sites banned script stories as well.

[Malte279]

Personally I would consider that a bit too much empty lines given the fact that no change of place or locations takes place. In my opinion cutting the previous line short by hitting enter once rather than interrupting the story by an entirely free line by hitting enter twice (something that I think makes sense only in case of changes in time, place, or meaning (e.g. if something important is revealed that changes the entire situation though time and place may remain the same) would do:

Darcy tripped against the floor of the ship and found herself stumbling forward. The ship had been struck with another powerful wave of water. As Darcey made her way down the corridor, she could hear the thunder crack outside of the boat and she could imagine the flash of lightning as the rain continued to pour mercilessly on the ship. And mixed in with the sounds of the storm, she could hear the cries of men as they either scrambled to get out of the storm or keep the ship from being capsized at sea.
Darcy tried to keep her footing by pressing her hands against the wall in a desperate attempt to retain some kind of traction. Water had flowed into this part of the boat. The floor was soaked and slippery. It was very difficult to move quickly without tumbling down. The waves that still slammed against the boat did not make things any easier for her to keep her balance.
As she struggled to get to the deck of the ship, many thoughts ran through her mind, too fast for her to comprehend individually. Thoughts of her father came to her mind and she bit her lip and tried to hide her tears. She missed him dearly and she had regretted getting on the ship in the first place. But amidst the chaos of the storm, her thoughts were so focused on getting to safety that she could not even remember why she got on.

The shortened lines still work as a means of orientation even if they are not followed by an entirely empty line.
One can be of different opinion about this, but I think in a printed book they probably wouldn't leave the entirely blank lines in. In my opinion frequent empty line can hamper the reading flow same as the total absence of any empty lines whatsoever can hamper orientation.

[DarkHououmon]

In printed stories, no there is no space between paragraphs because there's an indention on the first line of each paragraph indicating there's a new one.

In my opinion, not using spacing online actually makes the story harder to read. Online, most of the time, there is a space. Stories online that lack the spaces tend to be more difficult to read.

A friend of mine and I were discussing this. There's a difference between reading text online and reading on paper.

Online, with no indentions, it is not a good idea to write as you would in a book, with no space between paragraphs. It becomes difficult to read because the text is now bunched up together. That's why there are spaces. Even in official articles you can find online, there is a space. It replaces the indention, having the same effect as one. Indentions almost never show up online, so a space is required.

In books, however, having a space is not very professional and is discouraged. Indentions are instead utilized on the first line of each paragraph (at least of the stories I've seen) and the only time a space is used is if there's a new chapter or if it's cutting to a new scene.

[Serris]

The only reason printed media doesn't have spaces between lines is because of indentation. Online media does not have indentations thus requiring spaces in order to be made readable.

[DarkHououmon]

With books, to make sure I don't reread a line, I use my finger to guide my eyes so I know what line I just read and where I left off. However, this same thing cannot be achieved with a computer. I almost never see anyone place a finger on the monitor to read a line to make sure they don't reread it again.

[The Chronicler]

One reason why I think indentations don't work on online text is because that the amount of available space for a single line of text is so great that indentations just don't seem effective anymore.

You will notice that I have used a space to separate this paragraph from the previous one. If this post was on a printed piece of paper, I would have used the indentation instead of the space.

[Jasper]

This is very helpful information. Bolding character names have never been done before, even in non LBT related fan-fic, not that I'm aware of, so I agree with what everyone else is saying that it is not necessary.