These are some formatting techniques which make the
posting of your story on the Writer's Desk much easier.
- No tabs - initial tabs in paragraphs are never used in Web pages. Always flush to the
left margin.
- Blank line between every paragraph, even one line dialogs. This makes reading easier on
line.
- PROOFREAD!!!
- To make a word bold, type <strong> before it and </strong> after it.
- To make a word italics, type <em> before it and </em> after it.
- Never use underlining in a document, use bold or italics instead.
- PROOFREAD!!!
- Determine your break points and be consistent. Some stories might require chapters,
others just breaks. Breaks will get the Barkley brand when they are posted to the library.
- Do not type straight into the Writing Desk. Type your story somewhere else! Then put it
into the library. If you don't know how to copy and paste, follow these steps.
- Log on to internet
- Get to the Writing Desk
- Get to Post Message
- Minimize the browser window by click in on its name on the task bar below (this assumes
you are using Windows 95 or 98. Mac users usually know what to do.)
- Open the program that you used to write the story.
- Start at the top of the page. Hold down the shift key and down arrow until you get to a
section where you feel comfortable stopping (or entire story.) I find using the shift +
down arrow much easier than dragging with a mouse. But if you can highlight with a mouse,
go for it.
- Click on Edit (on the menu bar), Copy.
- Close or minimize the document
- Click on the task bar where you see the name of the browser.
- Click on Edit (on the menu bar), then Paste.
- You can do this in one shot, or in pieces if you feel more comfortable. The maximum
number of characters is about 40000 inside the text box before it will not accept any more
text. This is about 9 pages of story with dialog.
- Did I mention PROOFREAD!!!?
This is the process of submitting a story:
- Do whatever you need to complete the story to the point where you want your first
viewing. There are several people around who love to be editors for early work, and can
offer suggestions.
- Post it to the Writing Desk, in however many segments or whatever length of time is
convenient to you..(though it may make others ache. I for one am waiting for Dr. Anna to
reappear...no pressure, Madge)
- Do one last read-through of your story, and PLEASE have one other person to do a
check for typos, punctuation or such, etc. Also if you want to tweak a sentence
or change a little dialog, go ahead... What is in the Library doesn't have to be the same
as the Writing Desk.
- Email the complete story to me in whatever format you care to; I do prefer plain text,
Word or WordPerfect. If you have a truly bizarre word processing program, then ASCII text
or Text file is just fine.
- If you happen to find an illustration or pictures for your story, send them along. This
is not required, or even needed, but I have found a couple of occasions where
illustrations have made a nice addition.
- Please write a brief synopsis which explains your story. If you are writing an
"alternate world view," then please give the foundation on which the story is
based.
- Let me know if you have specific breaks in the story. I try to keep the size of the file
around 40-50k bytes. That is the technical term for about the length of time a story
should download before the reader starts getting antsy. I do look for a place where the
story comes to a logical breaking point, cliff-hanging point if possible.
- I try to put up stories every weekend, but I like to do 2-3 at a time, and knowing my
schedule, it is such a toss up when updates take place.
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