how people write fanfic

[tielan]

Query for those who write with the intent to publish on web platforms ie. AO3, once upon a time DW/LJ, other fic archives.

Do you code the HTML as you go, writing it out on the page? Or do you do the HTML coding only when you post the fic?

edit: Wow, I feel completely odd writer out now. I write everything in a word processor, and copypasta into AO3, hand-coding for DW/LJ...

I mean, I once created an MS Word macro that coded bold and italics and underline based on the formatting but that was back in ye olde dayes of LJ when you'd post the entire story on LJ...

Comments

[scribblemyname]

The first

[tielan]

Interesting. I seem to be at odds with everyone else!

[theladyscribe]

Used to be code as I go, but now I use the AO3 posting script on gdocs. It works really well for the basics (bold, italics, etc.), though it doesn't do bullet points or links.

[tielan]

I wonder how much platform has to do with whether or not people code as they go. because I note that both beatrice_otter and myself write in word, and so do the coding only when posting.

It's interesting to see what's popped up by way of scripts or automated postings - I found the 'upload from LJ' option in AO3 extremely clunky and rather nasty when it came to formatting on AO3, so I never used it.

[beatrice_otter]

I do the html coding only when posting. I write in Word, and then do find/replace to insert the coding. I explained the process here: https://beatrice-otter.dreamwidth.org/318344.html

[tielan]

Oh, I know about the find/replace option. I had a macro that I used in MS Word to do my formatting for me, back in the old days of LJ. These days, with AO3 automatically doing stuff, I don't bother so much.

But I wonder if it's a function of a) platform that you began in (ie. habit), b) word processing document, c) what you're writing - ie. short fanfic, or long?

[the_rck]

As I type. I touch type, so it's not much work to add the italics.

[tielan]

I find it really difficult to re-read though! Like, my brain has to stop to parse the HTML.

[the_rck]

I've gotten used to the tags and really don't see them when I reread. I compose everything in a basic format and C&P anywhere I want to post. Tags work consistently across platforms and don't get stripped out by C&P. It's much easier than remembering what works for each program or site.

[tielan]

See, I'm only posting to AO3, and then I link there from everywhere else. And AO3, I can C&P in Rich Text Mode and do any additional mods by switching back to HTML view.

[skieswideopen]

I code as I go. I tend to use HTML sparingly, so I don't find it interferes with my reading and editing.

[tielan]

See, when I go back at read my files, I don't want to get my visuals tangled up in the HTML.

Also, I have long stories, many of which are only half-written and I need to go back and re-read them for context, and the HTML trips me up.

[umadoshi]

I code in the italics and occasional bold as I go, but any other code gets added later on.

[tielan]

I am definitely the outlier, then. :)

[edenfalling]

I code italics as I go. Anything more complicated gets added in the final editing pass, right before I post.

[tielan]

When I'm posting to LJ, I code as I go, but posting stories on archives, I've always coded at the point where I was posting. Either through a word processing macro/find-replace function, or else using whatever inbuilt system they had at the archive.

Although with AO3, I just C&P into the story contents using the Rich Text function, which I then clean up with HTML as necessary.

It's been interesting reading how other people do it. And educational to learn that I'm the odd writer out.

[edenfalling]

I am not fond of rich text interfaces -- in my experience, they tend toward unexpected formatting glitches, and also they're just not as versatile. Writing my own html lets me be sure the finished text will appear exactly the way I want it to look.

[tielan]

I do format the code in AO3 after the RTF has done the basic formatting - mostly just taking out all the extraneous <span> tags, along with all the font=Western:ariel tags that get inserted into the <p> tags.

Mind you, most of my fics are very basic formatting - bold, italics and the occasional indent, although I have set up a css skin for when I want to depict text messages.

[kore]

I am older than dirt so I write it all out in notepad and hard code the HTML, then cut and paste it into the HTML window on AO3, because I hate both GDocs and the AO3 RT interface. (I never liked the LJ/DW rich text thing either. I am a WYSIWYG kind of girl.)

[tielan]

So this is the really weird part.

I HTML code as I go in LJ/DW. It's a handover from Ye Olde Dayes of LJ. But when it comes to writing, I don't bother. I switch between the types of fonts as needed using CTRL-I and CTRL-B and whatever other formatting processes are required, but I don't do the code then.

Most of my stories only have bold or italics anyway, although AO3 does have a habit of putting in <span> tags an awful lot, so if they bother me too much I switch over to notepad and clear them all out, along with any font formatting...

Now I feel very weird...

[rmc28]

I write in Text Editor on Ubuntu (basically notepad for linux) and do a weird mix of hand-coding HTML or using random emphasis indicators as I go (e.g. *wibble* for wibble) - I think I almost never use bold in my stories, but I I do use italics quite a bit, but whether I type it "properly" in HTML or just add something for emphasis depends on how the *flow* is going :-)

[tielan]

Heh. For me, the flow relies on not having to interrupt with the SHIFT-comma or SHIFT-fullstop. I can do it fluidly, but I don't like it. It doesn't feel as natural as typing CTRL-I or CTRL-B.

[schneefink]

I would like to code as I go because it's easier, but I don't because I want to see it how a reader would see it to know what effect it would have. (Yes I'm sure there's a workaround to do it in a smarter way but it doesn't come up often enough for me to look for it.)

[tielan]

Yeah, I want to see how it looks, not just how I think it will look.

I guess, also, I started typing out stories on computers some thirty years ago, back on the old monospace screens - when CMYK was cutting-edge for computers. There was no bold or italics, not on the screen - just highlights to indicate where you'd put the emphases.

When we switched to MS Word, there was *gasp* italics! Bold! UNDERLINE! It was a revelation to be able to see it like it was on the page, not just what I had imagined in my head.

[beatrice_otter]

When you say "workaround," do you mean you want to type it the way it looks on the screen and then add the html code automatically later? If you use a Word-type program, you can use the search and replace function to add in the code in the right spots. I have a tutorial here.

[havocthecat]

I code the HTML as I go in Word, writing it out on the page. I think it comes from not wanting to bother with putting code in later.

I never bothered with a macro either. Too much work. (I realize macros are, ultimately, less work. But I would have to set it up on every iteration of Word on every work computer and they have a habit of wiping them and not restoring settings from backup and I'm laaaaazy. And I used to write fic at work a lot more.)

[tielan]

See, I only ever posted fic from home, and I used the same MS Word (Word 2000) instance on my computer for, oh, about 15 years, until Windows 8 turned out to be non-compatible with it. Then I switched to Open Office, which does pretty much all the things I wanted, but I still had MS Word available at work, so I ran the macros from work in my break moments.

More than anything, this post is turning out to be something of an education in the different ways people use various interfaces, and make them work for them.

[havocthecat]

I can understand why you'd use the macro if you'd been going through the same instance for 15 years.

I do like Open Office, but I switched to Libre Office just to test it. It's...interesting. I have Office 2013 also, because I got it for super cheap at work ($10, not to be turned down).

I think that it's fascinating to see how everyone finds the ways that work best for them. I've been doing the hand-coding since the 90s and I honestly don't use that much in the way of formatting, so it's no big deal for me.

[beatrice_otter]

... or you can use Word's search-and-replace function to insert the appropriate code. If you know how to use the stuff hidden beneath the "more options" button, you can use a "replace all" to wrap html tags around italic sections, and then another "replace all" to wrap html tags around the bold sections.

[havocthecat]

I know it's possible to do that. I use the "more options" button all the time when I feel I need to. But I feel it's easier for me to do it this way, which is why I write fic my way. Thank you for the advice.

[nrgburst]

I write in word, then copy paste to Ao3 which formats most of it automatically, and finally copy paste the nicely HTML formatted stuff to DW so I have a copy here.

[tielan]

I write in word with the formatting, keep that, and then copypaste to AO3. It sometimes means that AO3 is not quite what I'd like it to be but... *shrugs*

I don't post here anymore, but I have all my fics on my HD. I figure that's good enough. :)

[frith_in_thorns]

I code as I go. Actually I handwrite fic in notebooks. I handwrite my html tags in.

[tielan]

I find it so frustrating to handwrite now. I can type so much faster! I can edit my thoughts! I mean, I used to write epics in one-page-a-day business diaries, and then painstakingly type them out on a computer-that-was-marginally-better-than-a-typewriter, so I love my word processors...

I do write up story notes in journals and exercise books and such...

[grav_ity]

I used to type the HTML into my documents, so the formatting would show up on LJ.

Then I would copy/pasta the POSTED lj entry to AO3.

ff.net changed at some point, but when I started you had to copy in the HTML and now I think you can do it without.

My dreamwidth is set to buttons, and I still type the code half the time out of habit. I should change the setting...

I don't post fic on tumblr.

[tielan]

I am discovering that I do things very differently to most folk who migrated over from LJ.

As in, I HTML my LJ/DW entries as I type them and don't use the RTF, but I write my stories in a word processer and have either a) run a macro to add HTML, b) let the site work their conversion magic on it. Even ff.net (by the time I started using it, which I think was pretty late) had the ability to convert my uploaded word file to the correct bold and italics. AO3, I barely think about it, although I check the finished document before I actually post.

This probably comes back to me being lazy-ass: if I don't have to do the html coding work, why should I bother? So long as it looks okay (and, frankly, apart from occasionally having to set things to right-justified, or fix endless <span> tags, and maybe set up 'texting' with a monospaced font, it generally does), I'm good.

[raine]

I used to code the HTML as I went, but then I discovered Dreamweaver would format the Word doc for me, and I quit doing that. I only code when I reply to comments on AO3 or in DW; the rich text editor on AO3 is good enough for what I want it to do. The exception is when I decide I want an uncommon HTML format, like arrows for a horizontal line.