A Formatting FAQ for Fanfic Authors
Compiled by Dorothy Marley [demarley at yahoo.com]
First Posted: 02/25/01
Last Revised: 03/18/01This FAQ was written to be shared. Please feel free to copy, re-post, archive, link to, and otherwise distribute this FAQ, but please include all headers and notices. To link, please use this URL: http://losa.mattachine.com/format.htm. There's also a plain version available here: http://losa.mattachine.com/formattxt.htm
Contents
- Introduction
- The Golden Rule of Internet Text
- ASCII
- What is it?
- How to write it
- The sure way
- Another way
- Smart Quotes
- What are they?
- How to eliminate Smart Quotes
- The sure way
- The next-best way
- Dashes and Ellipses
- How to eliminate auto-corrected dashes and ellipses
- The sure way
- The next-best way
- Paragraphs
- Paragraph breaks
- The sure way
- The next-best way
- Scene breaks
- Line Lengths
- A brief but necessary digression about screen widths
- Line lengths
- The sure way
- A way that sometimes works
- Post Lengths
- The sure way
- Subject Lines
- More about post numbers
- The sure way
- The next-best way
- A final word on subject lines
- The "0" Post
- The Template
- HTML
- What is it?
- The sure way
- Testing
- Further Resources
- Conclusion
01. Introduction
This guide is for authors who might be new to electronic posting, or don't have a lot of technical know-how, or simply need a few tips to format their stories. My goal is not to write a step by step guide on how to do everything with every individual program, but rather to provide a basic, informative, and hopefully simple checklist to help the novice poster get started.
Disclaimer
These are not rules, or orders, or me or anyone else dictating what you have to do. These are merely suggestions, gathered together in hopes of providing the new and the uncertain with a few helpful guidelines. This is *not* meant to discourage anyone. If you read through this and think "I can never remember to do all this stuff, I'm never going to post," then please think again. Do what you can, and I promise that with practice it will become easier.
This guide does not cover the mechanics of grammar, spelling, and other basic writing tools. You're on your own there.
Last but not least
It's not only a good idea, it's plain old common sense to familiarize yourself with the individual rules for the groups you wish to post to. It can be a headache, especially if you write for a number of different fandoms or genres, but the good news is that the general rules tend to be quite similar. Most groups send a Frequently Asked Questions file (FAQ) to you when you join or they will post one regularly. Read it. Save it. Consult it.
02. The Golden Rule of Internet Text
"Seek the lowest common denominator"
The first step to understanding why there are all these seemingly strange and arbitrary conventions to electronic formatting is to understand this:
Every computer system is different. Every e-mail program is different, every newsreader is different, and every ISP is different. All of them interpret information by their own set of conventions, and there are only so many commands that are guaranteed to be recognized by each and every one of them. If you reach for that common denominator, if you understand what is likely to be translated correctly, and what will be likely to turn into garbage on someone else's computer, then you'll be that much closer to creating clean, readable electronic text.
I know it sounds fearsomely complicated, but the trick is to make your text as *un*-complicated as you can. If you pretend that all your readers are using the lowest-tech, lowest-capacity browsers, e-mailers, and text readers, and format accordingly, you can't go wrong. The sophisticated browsers and e-mailers will display your simple document beautifully, and so will all the others.
03. ASCII
What is it?
ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange (so most say). It refers to the 128 characters that are always recognizable by English-character computers transmitting information over the internet. In practical terms, this is anything you can type on your keyboard without hitting the Alt, Control, Option or Command keys first (There are exceptions, discussed in more detail below). Furthermore, in terms of formatting, there are only two commands that can be reliably translated: the space and the "hard" return (more about hard returns in the "Line Lengths" section).
**In order to ensure that your document can be read cleanly by all the computers it's transmitted to, it MUST contain ONLY ASCII characters.**
How to write ASCII
A good place to start is to become familiar with what ASCII text is, and then make an effort to write with ASCII-friendly characters. Some tips:
--Turn off Smart Quotes and other autocorrect features.
--Avoid boldface, italics, underlining, centering and other fancy formatting. A common convention is to use asterisks (*) to indicate emphasis and slashes (/) to indicate thought.
--When spelling foreign words, omit accents, tildes and umlauts. No, it's not proper spelling, but it's generally preferable to read a unaccented word than be unable to read a garbled word.
--Turn off Smart Quotes.
--Don't use tabs.
--Single-space all text within paragraphs, but be sure to double-space between paragraphs.
--Turn off Smart Quotes.
Following these tips will help, but you'll still need to find a method to save your work as ASCII (usually called "plain text," "DOS," "text only," etc. in your word processer).
The sure way
One method is to compose your text in a plain-text editor such as Notepad (Windows) or BBEdit (Mac). (I don't really recommend Simpletext for Mac users. You can still get into trouble with formatting, there's no good way to save with line breaks, and Simpletext can't open documents larger than about 40K.) The disadvantage of using the basic editors is that they often lack spell-checking devices and the handy editing shortcuts built into the more sophisticated word processors. (For a more detailed list of various plain-text editors, see the HLFIC-L Formatting FAQ in the Resources section.)
Another way
Many authors find it easier to go ahead and compose in their favorite word processor, save as text, then use that text file or open the file in a simpler editor to make the necessary changes for posting to the net. To do this, after you're finished with your story go to your "Save As" option. There should be a choice to save as "plain text," "text only," or "ASCII." Consult your program's software manual if you need more details on which option will make your document plain text.
NOTE: Saving your text as plain text does not always eliminate certain "autocorrected" features like Smart Quotes, ellipses, and dashes. More about them below.
DON'T post a story without turning it into plain text. It will be unreadable.
Extra Tip for Mac Users:
Go to http://www.barebones.com/ and download the freeware BBEdit Lite. Go on. I'll wait. You won't regret it.
04. Smart Quotes
What are they?
Smart Quotes are the "curly" quotes that you see in most commercially printed material, and are a feature of almost all modern word processors. Normal "straight" quotes are part of the ASCII character set, but Smart Quotes are special characters that do *not* translate reliably over the internet.
How to eliminate Smart Quotes
The sure way
Turn them off. Now. Go into your word processor and your e-mailer, find the commands that enable them, and make sure they're off. Put it in your permanent preferences, and from now on, start each story with them off.
**Saving a file as plain text DOES NOT automatically eliminate Smart Quotes.**
The next-best way
Okay, so you've already finished a story with the quotes intact. This is still salvagable. First, turn off the Smart Quotes. Next, do a search and replace for each of the four kinds of quotes (left and right double quotes, and left and right single quotes). Sometimes you can get away with simply replacing all the double quotes, then all the single quotes, and the processor will read both the left and right quotes as the same. If that doesn't work, you'll have to cut and paste each kind of quote into the "find" field, and then replace them. And, since you've already turned off your Smart Quotes, you won't have to do this again.
DON'T post a story with Smart Quotes. If you're lucky, they'll merely show up as gibberish. On some systems, they don't show up at all. Either way, there's an excellent chance that many of your potential readers will skip the story unread.
05. Ellipses and Dashes
In the last couple of years, many new versions of popular word processors have added an "auto-correct" feature that automatically turns normal typed ellipses (. . . or ...) and dashes (--) into special characters that look nice and spiffy when printed out. By now, it should come as no surprise that these characters turn into goobledygook when pasted into e-mail. These are particularly nasty because, like Smart Quotes, they can persist even after a file is saved as plain text.
The sure way
Do as you've already done with the Smart Quotes: Turn them off.
The next-best way
Again, if you've already completed a document with these characters, turning them off and then doing a search and replace will more than likely fix the problem.
**Saving a file as plain text DOES NOT automatically eliminate autocorrected ellipses and dashes.**
DON'T post something with auto-corrected characters. Like Smart Quotes, these special characters will just turn to junk on a lot of e-mailers.
06. Paragraphs
In printed text, paragraphs are typically represented by indenting the first line of a new paragraph. Unfortunately, not only are those print conventions very difficult to read from a computer screen, but the tab command used for indents doesn't translate well over the internet. For this reason, the electronic convention is to write all text single-spaced, and double space when a new paragraph begins.
The sure way
Double-space between paragraphs by hitting the Return (or Enter) key twice at the end of each paragraph. This will create a blank line between each paragraph, and will ensure that your paragraphs will remain separate and not run into one long paragraph.
The next-best way
If you absolutely cannot abide merely double-spacing, if you have to have an indent, then double-space anyway and then physically type in the number of spaces you'd like for an indent. But please, please be consistent.
DON'T just use a single return and your Tab key. Looks great in your word processor, can easily turn your story into one long paragraph on someone else's e-mailer.
Scene breaks
When a scene break is needed in the text, the usual convention is to place a short row of unique characters between the scenes. Some authors use a short row of dashes (-----) or asterisks (*****). Others use more elaborate single-line constructions. Whatever you choose to do, make sure that you use it consistently throughout the story.
DON'T use blank triple or quadruple returns to signal a scene change. Multiple blank lines are easily glossed over when reading, and you will likely lose the reader in the change if there's no other visual cue.
07. Line lengths
First, a brief yet necessary digression about screen widths
80 characters is considered to be the maximum acceptable length for lines of text, but the truth is that a lot of folks have a hard time with anything more than 70 characters, and some guidelines recommend line lengths of about 60 characters. The bottom line? Don't be afraid to make short line lengths. 70 characters is the most common standard, and there's nothing wrong with making lines even a bit shorter than that. Not only will short lines help eliminate the "long line-short line" problem, but short lines are much easier to read off a computer screen.
Hard returns
Now we get to the down-and-dirty about hard returns. A "hard" return is, quite simply, created by hitting the Return key on your keyboard, forcing the text to begin on the next line. Modern word processors, and even the more sophisticated typewriters, have trained us not to hit return at the end of every line. Instead, we let the computer "soft-wrap" the text, and only use the Return key when a new paragraph is needed. Unfortunately, those "soft" returns used by the word processor to keep track of the text do not translate reliably over the internet.
**Unless there is a "hard" return at the end of each and every line, *and* unless the line lengths are less than 70 characters, you run the risk of someone's e-mailer or newsreader making chutney out of your text.**
The sure way
Mac Users:
If you've already downloaded BBEdit, your task is easy. Just go to the Edit menu and choose "Window Options," then set the soft-wrap lengths to whatever number of characters you desire. Then go to the Text menu and choose "Insert Line Breaks." This will put a hard return at the end of every line.
Everyone else:
(The best way I know to do this is the method outlined by Margaret A. Martin in her "Survival Guide to Electronic Fanfic." This is a quick summary of it, and for more detail you can find the URL in the "Further Resources" section.)
Change your font to a monospaced one (ie a font in which each character takes up the same amount of horizontal space. Courier and Monaco are two popular monospaced fonts). Then type out the desired number of characters at the top your document. Using that line of characters as a guide, adjust your margins until that line fits exactly without wrapping to the next line. Then save your document in whatever way you need to put a hard return at the end of each and every line (usually "text with line breaks," "text with breaks," etc.)
A way that sometimes works
On some e-mail programs, you can get away with pasting text into the e-mail and having the e-mail program set the line lengths. This is risky, though, because not all e-mailers will insert the needed hard returns, and your text might end up with those weird and other odd characters. If you do this (which I don't recommend), then I'd strongly suggest using double-spaces between paragraphs.
NOTE: Some e-mailers and newsreaders will automatically re-format your line lengths, removing the hard returns and setting their own returns when the message is sent. To avoid this problem, set your options to *not* word-wrap while posting the story, but make sure that you change it back before posting normally. If you send a normal message without the word wrap, it can show up on some readers, and especially on a mailing list archive, as a series of long, *long* lines. Check your program's software for more information on how to set your line length options.
DON'T let your line lengths go over 80 characters.
DON'T post a story without making some kind of provision for hard returns.
08. Post lengths
Not all e-mailers and ISPs allow their users to handle mega-sized mails. My ISP, for example, turns an e-mail into an attachment if it's over 50,000 lines. AOL turns an e-mail into an attachment if it's more than about 25K. Big difference, including the way that the max size is calculated. For that reason, the general rule is to limit e-mail posts to no more than 350 lines of 70 characters each, or 25K, and to limit Usenet posts to no more than 500 lines (but please check the guidelines of your individual group.)
The sure way
Before you start, here's a couple of incredibly useful pieces of information that will make your world a better place when calculating file sizes:
1 typed character equals 1 byte. Each kilobyte (K) has 1024 bytes.
For me, the easiest way to split text is by using the number of lines, but you can also use the steps below to calculate the number of characters in a section of text. If each typed character takes up a byte, then you can divide the number of characters by 1,000 to get a rough idea of how many kilobytes are in that section, and adjust to make your sections 25K or less.
There are several ways of finding out how many lines are in a chunk of text. Most word processors have a "Word Count" or "Information" function that will tell you how many lines are in a document or in a selected portion of that document. (In BBEdit, there's also a "Show Line Numbers" feature that will number the lines down the left side of the screen.)
Tip: If you want to use the character counts, but your program only counts words, just multiply the number of words by 6 to get a rough esimate of the number of characters.
Step one: Find out how many lines are in the whole document. (And make sure that you're using 70-character lines, or you'll have to re-calculate the max number of lines you're allowed.)
Step two: Figure out how many posts it will take. For example, a 450-line story will need 2 parts in e-mail, but only 1 part for Usenet.
Step three: Figure out how to proportion the text. It's very rare that a story will helpfully provide a convienient stopping place every 350th line, so don't be afraid to divide it in what seems like an awkward spot. It's much better for the story to arrive complete with slightly awkward part cuts than to have some parts arrive as attachments or even chopped off because there wasn't a good stopping place within the max limit.
Step four: Cut and paste each section into your e-mailer or newsreader. If you've done your hard returns and all properly, there shouldn't be any odd formatting.
Step five: Once you've pasted the story, it's a good idea to mark the beginning and end of the post. At the least, putting a tag at the end of the post ("End Part 1/8," "Continued in Part 2/8," etc) will let the reader know that they've recieved the entire post, and will point them to the next one in case they've lost track of the number while reading. Putting the title and part number at the top of each post is also good for making sure the reader knows they're reading the story in the correct order.
Caution: Many mailing lists, mail services, and posting services will automatically add headers or footers to anything you post. If two or three of these get piled on to a story, it can add quite a bit to the text.
DON'T use the number of pages as a guide. Different font sizes, screen widths, margin settings, and printer preferences will radically change the number of pages text can occupy in your word processer. Once you've become used to how much space your own work occupies, you can use your own page counts, but don't rely on anyone else's.
DON'T send even a 30K story in one part just because you're too lazy to split it up. It's rude, and it causes headaches for folks whose e-mailers can't handle the bigger posts.
DON'T send stories as attachments. Many mailing lists won't allow them, and with good reason. First, attachments can be very difficult for different systems to translate reliably. Second, this is the way that most e-mail viruses are transmitted. Many folks routinely refuse all attachments, or trash them unopened.
09. Subject Lines
Because of the limitations of posting lengths, many stories need to be sent in multiple parts. To help readers put the story together in order, most lists request that authors number their story parts and indicate the total number of parts, usually by this formula: Story part/Total number of parts, ie 01/12, 02/12, etc.
The general rule is to keep subject lines under 60 characters, and the shorter the better (although it's also important to keep subject lines descriptive). Also, it's important that the post number appear relatively early in the subject line, since some systems sort with fewer numbers of characters than others. If you're posting to a mailing list, keep in mind that the name of the list is likely be tacked onto the beginning, eating up a given number of characters in every subject line.
More about post numbers
Something important to remember when creating subject lines: Computers is real stupid. When a computer sorts subject lines, it takes them character by character, including spaces. This means that a computer will sort all the 1s first, then all the 2s, etc, meaning that a 13 part story would be sorted in this order: 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 2, 3...etc.
If your story is 9 parts or less, you're fine. Just put 1/9, 2/9, etc., and it will sort perfectly. But, if your story is 10 posts or more, you need to put leading zeros in front of the single-digit numbers if you want the posts to be sorted in proper order: 01/10, 02/10, 03/10, etc.
If you're posting an unfinished story in progress, it's considered good form to use "01/?" to indicate part numbers (and if you think there's even a remote possibility that the story will reach 10 parts, use the leading zero). Even if you know exactly how many parts there *will* be, it's still bad form to post an unfinished story without indicating clearly that it's a work in progress (WIP). It's especially important to be consistent with subject lines with ongoing stories, since those who are making the effort to save the pieces will be grateful if they can assemble them in the end without having to search for each part in their mailbox.
The sure way
Consult the guidelines for the group you intend to post to. Some forums have detailed FAQs about subject lines, others don't care. Either way, remember that the subject line is the cover of your story. It's the first thing your readers see, and it can tell a lot about how much, or how little, care you put into your story. Once you've done that, create a "template" subject line. Put in all the information you think you need. For example:
My Brilliant Story 00/15 (AB/CD PG Slash)
Paste this template into the subject line of every e-mail part and fill in the appropriate part numbers, making sure that you don't add or delete any spaces. To ensure proper sorting, the *only* thing that should vary from subject line to subject line is the part number.
My Brilliant Story 00/15 (AB/CD PG Slash)
My Brilliant Story 01/15 (AB/CD PG Slash)
My Brilliant Story 02/15 (AB/CD PG Slash)
. . .
My Brilliant Story 15/15 (AB/CD PG Slash)
The next-best way
If you're using an e-mail program or newsreader that makes it difficult to paste in the subject line, then *carefully* type in each line individually, making absolutely certain that each line is identical. This is crucial, because the receiving computer will sort spaces first, and one mistake will boost part " 07/10" to the front of the list. My apologies if I seem overly picky, but believe me, the e-mailer's sorting process is utterly unforgiving.
DON'T use radically different methods of labelling each part, for example:
NEW: My Brilliant Story 01/15
NEW STORY: My Brilliant Story part 2 of 15
My Brilliant Story, Part 3
etc...
DON'T spell out part numbers (Part one of three, etc). Alphabetical sorting will make hash of the sequence.
DON'T carelessly type in the same approximate subject line with varying spaces and punctuation.
And last but not least...
DON'T write the full title, author's name, full fandom name, etc. in the subject line for the first part *unless* you are going to do it for every single part. There's nothing more frustrating than getting a beautifully, meticulously sorted story, only to have the sequence start with part 02/48.
A final word about subject lines
Keep the subject line short, but descriptive. "New Highlander Story 1/8" doesn't tell the readers very much. In general, it's considered appropriate to put the title of the story, the number of parts, and certain warning labels in the subject line. On multi-fandom lists, folks will probably appreciate a fandom and pairing code, too. On a list that allows both fiction and discussion, "FIC" or "STORY" at the beginning of the line will help readers pick out your story from the posts on other topics. But, keep in mind that on a list that's only for posting fiction, these labels are a bit redundant, as are genre labels for stories posted to a genre-specific list ("NEW SLASH FIC," for example, on a story posted to a slash list that only allows new fiction). Check the list guidelines to make sure, and use a bit of common sense.
10. The "0" post
Many lists encourage or even require a "0" post with each story. Some readers prefer not to be warned or spoiled before reading a story, and putting all the disclaimers, warnings, summaries, notes, and other information into a separate post allows them to skip straight to the story without having to wade through all that information. If you use a "0" post (and some lists do require them, so check the guidelines), use the exact same subject line as your other parts, and put "0" or "00" in place of the part number: 0/1, 00/22.
11. The template
Because mailing lists are often associated with archives, many lists request that authors include a template in the "0" post or at the beginning of their story. The template provides the archivist (and other readers) with necessary information about the story so it can be added to the archives. A basic template usually looks something like this:
Title:
Author:
Fandom:
Pairing:
Rating:
Date:
Archive: yes/no
Category:
E-mail:
Webpage:
Warnings:
Disclaimer:
Summary:
This template will satisfy most requirements, but please consult the list or archive guidelines to make sure you're including the all right information.
12. HTML
What is it?
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the basic language used to create web pages. I'll repeat myself more loudly: WEB PAGES. When it's time for you to create your own page to house your fiction, go for it. But when you're trying to e-mail your text to a mailing list or to Usenet, DO NOT USE HTML. There are two excellent reasons for this:
1) Remember the Golden Rule? Many, many e-mailers and newsreaders are not HTML compatible. This is slowly changing, but it must be noted that even those who can read HTML do not necessarily want to read HTML.
2) HTML takes *space.* Lots of it. It takes even more when the HTML is written by a program (which it usually is when sent over e-mail). A redundantly written HTML file can be--and I'm not kidding--twice the size of the plain-text version. To make things even more fun, some programs will put in the plain text, and then add the HTML version all over again at the end, which means that you might have just created a file that's two-and-a-half to three times as large as the original text. This file takes twice as long to download, twice as many posts to post, and will probably cause AOL to turn it into an attachment and other servers to cut it off halfway through--and all for a format that your readers might not even be able to read.
The sure way
Go into your e-mailer, find the HTML options, and turn them off. Post only in plain text, and go into your options on your mailing list services and make sure that your preferences are set to plain text. If you need help, check the "How to Configure E-mail Clients to Send Plain-ASCII Text" link in the "Further Resources" section.
DON'T send HTML files over e-mail. Period. Unless you know for an absolute fact that every single person receiving that mail can read it, you've just clogged up their mailbox with twice as many kilobytes of useless information.
13. Testing
The first time you post, or any time you change programs, or even just for the heck of it, I'd highly recommend mailing sample copies to yourself, at different accounts and computers if you can manage it, and to friends with different programs and systems and ISPs than your own. Some mailing lists (although not, alas, Yahoogroups) are set up with a "Test" function, so you can send a post and see how it comes out without pestering everyone on the lists. For Usenet, there is an alt.test hierarchy that exists expressly for this purpose.
DON'T send test messages to a mailing list or newsgroup without exploring the proper proceedure for that group. Some lists will give helpful tips on posting. Others will flame you alive. Ask first, post later.
14. Further Resources
For help with setting your e-mailer, here's the link to "How to Configure E-Mail Clients to Send Plain-ASCII Text": http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
A general FAQ about email lists: http://tools.populli.net
15. Conclusion
Hopefully this has been helpful. I can't gaurantee that this FAQ will make your posting perfect each time, but at the least I hope it can steer you in the right direction. Please feel free to copy and distribute this file.
E-mail Dorothy: losa at mattachine.com
Page Created: March 18, 2001
Last Updated: March 18, 2001<< Back to to the General FAQ or on to Writers' FAQ #2 >>
