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[Suggestion] Story Format
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Post by
ArgentSun
Hello, fellow writers!
Recently I have observed (hence, why I am The Observer) quite a lot of new stories emerging (and some old ones not being updated, *hint*). And even though I like that a lot, there is a very little problem with it - a large number of the new threads are just new chapters of those stories.
The other little concern I have is that these forums don't support walls of text very well. It just doesn't look as pretty as in a book (or even a .doc document!).
Here's my proposal:
When you start a new story, make a new thread about it. Then type and upload a .doc document somewhere - you can format it a lot better than the forums can. And as you write new chapters, post links to them in your main post, and bump the thread, to let us know that there is an update.
A couple of places where you could upload your articles (heck, you could even create a free blog of your own and do it there!) are
Google Docs
(for which you need @gmail.com account) and the
Box
(which I like for no apparent reason).
I am not forcing this on you, guys. It's a suggestion. Feel free to discard it if you have a good reason. Or suggest an alternative, I'd love to see it.
Post by
ArgentSun
Okay, here's what I mean, as an example:
Say, I start a story and I call it
Silver Sunrise
.
Here's how my first post is going to look:
Silver Sunrise
<short description if I want to>
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
...
Where each chapter is a link to an external website, and the document uploaded there (I strongly recommend Google Docs now, because you can read it without saving or downloading it).
Post by
Gnub
I like that - would surely make the place easier to read, and keep track of the different stories :)
A good thing for those providing feedback, would be to state what chapter/page/whatnot they're giving response to, so there isn't any confusion.
Post by
Arkaen
I wholeheartedly support this, and am using the google doc to host my story, Remnants of Quel'Thalas.
Post by
191195
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Gnub
As you mentioned, making a blog might be a good idea. Any suggestions for those?
Blogspot is a very simple and free alternative.
Wordpress is an awesome tool, that can be used on a domain of your own, or ... as far as I know.. in the same way as Blogspot. It's more advanced though, but gives many more options :)
Post by
ArgentSun
Actually there will be a slight change in plans. Without being offensive, changes
will
be made - you but get to choose whether to make them yourselves, or to have a moderator edit your stories.
Right now I and a few others are trying to come up with a format for all the story posting here - how exactly to make the title of your thread, how to organize the master post, how to and where to upload your chapters. With some of the stories, we
may
introduce a minimum length requirement - a chapter shorter than a single MS Word page just looks shabby. None of the stories have gotten dangerously close to the maximum character limit, but some are slowly getting there (Light and Death #9 was at around 11,500/15,000 symbols).
Stay tuned for updates!
Post by
304197
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
ArgentSun
No, not yet. What I suggested occurred to me before I started discussing unification of all stories. Nothing is set in stone yet, as I'd like to minimize the number of limitations. But some rules will come down on you fairly soon...
Post by
304197
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
ArgentSun
Unfortunately, that's the only flaw of this idea. You could also upload them to the Box, linked in my original post... Certainly not as good, but does the job just as well. Or feel free to suggest another place, I am open for ideas.
Post by
Gnub
If you take the time to get a free blog somewhere (like above, I'd still recommend either
WordPress
or
Blogger
- but there's probably lots of other suggestions out there), that's by far the best option - all you have to provide is a link, and there's no requirements for the reader.
All it takes is setting one up - which is fairly easy :)
Post by
Supremacy
Actually there will be a slight change in plans...
Right now I and a few others are trying to come up with a format for all the story posting here - how exactly to make the title of your thread, how to organize the master post, how to and where to upload your chapters. None of the stories have gotten dangerously close to the maximum character limit, but some are slowly getting there (
Light and Death #9 was at around 11,500/15,000 symbols
).
Stay tuned for updates!
Er...quick question. About that part that I bolded...is the maximum character limit for a post 15,000? I'm just asking because I was about to post a story, then got a message ("prompt" is probably the term) saying the charcter limit is 7500?
Just trying to clarify some things. I've got something pretty ambitious planned, and this might...well, put a bit of a damper on things.
Post by
162742
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Adamsm
I have a question, if you do use googledoc, how do you set it up on the forum's here to show as chapter 1, 2 and etc?
Post by
MeanMachine
I have a question, if you do use googledoc, how do you set it up on the forum's here to show as chapter 1, 2 and etc?
Save each chapter as a seperate document - you have different links for each of them that way.
Another thing conserning google docs - others do not necesserily need an account to view your stories - you can "publish" them. Just select the document that you want made public, open the "More actions" dropdown and choose Publish. from the page that appears ou can choose publishing options for the document. If it is published, you will see a link which anyone can use to view it.
Btw, I did apply your suggestion for my story even if I wasn't aware that this thread existed :) Good presentation and formatting in a forum post is an agony and I broke the size limit with chapter 3 (22 000 characters) anyway. That reminds me that I don't have a summary, though I will construct one now that the first 3 (4 soon) chapters are available.
Post by
361041
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Adamsm
Ive set up my Tales of the Draenei into this format now, so if someone at the moderator level would mind deleting
http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=103453&p=1188793
and
http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=102810&p=1187114
it be much appricatied.
Post by
Morec0
- ArgentSun, thank you for showing us where I can find those respective sites, and I encourage all to format them as such, but...
- My story has already covered so many pages - a whole chapter even - it would take a good deal of time for me to move all of my work into that format. Also, the format you have shown makes it a bit difficult for me to fit in my Writer's Commentary section, which - although most people probably don't read it - I am strangely proud of.
- So while I encourage other writers to do so, I will not be partaking in the format regulation. I hope you can understand.
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