Question Question about story partitioning

Wasn't "Like a Brick" released in two parts four years apart? Maybe it doesn't matter but for someone interested in a chronological release order reading of the stories it's hard to ignore that there might have been some influence on part 2 by those 4 intervening years.

It certainly can be important to have the parts as parts when the timelines are intertwined (such as Call the Thunder and Ill Winds or, more recently, Kayda 4 and Kodiak Conspiracy). Riddle of Sappho had no intervening releases (which would impact the story) during its run so why keep it in parts but combine the older story?

There's no right or wrong answers here, I know. I'm just curious if the original release date matters.

No, no there very much IS a right answer.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my stories are written and presented in parts deliberately. Even in printed form there would be that pause to turn the page or in this case the dreadful moments of curiosity waiting for the click and loading of the next page. That mental cliffhanger is intended and deliberate even in such a small space to give the mind time to wonder what could be coming and to digest what has already been offered.

I would not want the story combined into a single document that does not have that pause because it is an intended part of the experience.

E. E. Nalley wrote: No, no there very much IS a right answer.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my stories are written and presented in parts deliberately. Even in printed form there would be that pause to turn the page or in this case the dreadful moments of curiosity waiting for the click and loading of the next page. That mental cliffhanger is intended and deliberate even in such a small space to give the mind time to wonder what could be coming and to digest what has already been offered.

I would not want the story combined into a single document that does not have that pause because it is an intended part of the experience.

What he said ...

I want to leave the reader with a cliffhanger moment - even if it is a small cliff - when they hit a break. Combining them doesn't give that moment.

elrodw wrote:

E. E. Nalley wrote: No, no there very much IS a right answer.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my stories are written and presented in parts deliberately. Even in printed form there would be that pause to turn the page or in this case the dreadful moments of curiosity waiting for the click and loading of the next page. That mental cliffhanger is intended and deliberate even in such a small space to give the mind time to wonder what could be coming and to digest what has already been offered.

I would not want the story combined into a single document that does not have that pause because it is an intended part of the experience.

What he said ...

I want to leave the reader with a cliffhanger moment - even if it is a small cliff - when they hit a break. Combining them doesn't give that moment.

pfeh!

That's not a cliff, its a very large pile of angst...

Astrodragon wrote:

elrodw wrote:

E. E. Nalley wrote: No, no there very much IS a right answer.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my stories are written and presented in parts deliberately. Even in printed form there would be that pause to turn the page or in this case the dreadful moments of curiosity waiting for the click and loading of the next page. That mental cliffhanger is intended and deliberate even in such a small space to give the mind time to wonder what could be coming and to digest what has already been offered.

I would not want the story combined into a single document that does not have that pause because it is an intended part of the experience.

What he said ...

I want to leave the reader with a cliffhanger moment - even if it is a small cliff - when they hit a break. Combining them doesn't give that moment.

pfeh!

That's not a cliff, its a very large pile of angst...

Some people like to make mountain sides out of anthills.

The way we are transferring the stories at the moment is as much as possible just copy paste from the old site to the new site, cleaning up the HTML code, and typos / spelling mistakes as we see them.

The only point of contention so far is some want to keep the story titles exactly as they were formatted on the old site, while I was trying to suggest we should use a common formatting style here in the new site. Since the vast number of stories copied have been by Valintine, he's winning that argument by a landslide.

P.S. Kristin combining her story into one is a special case, she's the Author, she can do what she likes to her own story

Kristin authorized me to use the following format.

Title {as the author put it}: (Chap #)

This leads to a few oddities, because authors are inconsistent in their naming formats. Some of Ayla's stories are "Ayla #: Ayla and the..." others are just "Ayla and the..."

Once all of the stories are transferred we can, with permission work on an overall consistent naming format.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: P.S. Kristin combining her story into one is a special case, she's the Author, she can do what she likes to her own story

Yes, but my assumption going into the question was that the answer would be as EE stated. Parts are there for a reason. Also, I didn't see that Kristin had converted her own story.

That's what I get for posting from memory.

Actually, my pet peeves are the # symbols and the ALL CAPS, they both scratch my chalkboard for some reason

And I don't mind the discussions, I'd prefer to know how the Authors want me to treat their stories and do it right, rather then do what I think is best and accidentally offend them. So far the comments have told us:

• leave it as we wrote it
• fixing typos and spelling mistakes is fine
• removing junk HTML is fine

Which just leaves the final few questions of what is "content" and what is "formatting" and where the line is (i.e. Where is the line between "cleaning up" a story and "editing" a story?)
e.g.
Updating story breaks to use the new site swirly ones, or leave the old style "we put some stars in a line"?

Fixing the date stamps on old stories to match the date stamps on new stories?

Fixing the headers on stories so all the stories would have the same font sizes, justification, name and author in the same places (I wouldn't modify Bec's new story's header, as it obvious the Author wanted the header in the style it is).

etc.

Again, the more the Authors tell us what they would like us to do, more we are able to make sure we are dong what they want

P.S. Once again, just to lay fears, unless we've been told it's OK to do something, we don't do it. It's as close to copy paste at the moment as is possible.