Guide to authentic Taylor Varga stylificationing for Omake writers
These are the basic document guidelines I use while writing this story, and if you want to use them yourself, feel free. I do my writing in
LibreOffice, and use the
BBKode plugin to convert the document to BBcode, which is then pasted into the Sufficient Velocity editor also running in BBcode mode. Editing the result can allow for a number of interesting effects that can't be achieved by the Rich Text editor, and indeed in a few limited cases enabling that editor before saving the result will cause the document to end up being broken in various ways.
That said, if all you're doing is normal writing with color support, text and font changes, and so on, it works very well and doing it this way avoids a lot of the common issues you might have. One common one is that all the blank lines disappear if you merely cut and paste into the Rich Text editor directly, and it often eats any formatting metadata too. Somewhat erratically, which is even worse!
The BBKode plugin isn't maintained any more, and hasn't been for some five years at the time of writing, but it definitely works at least up to LibreOffice V5.4.5.1.
(EDIT: as of 2019-02-12 I have tested the plugin with up to Libreoffice V6.1.5 and it still works. However, I found that 6.xx versions of the program have all sorts of other issues with my personal setup so am sticking with 5.xx versions for now, as they do everything I want at the moment.)
I have set up a number of styles in LibreOffice for making things like colored text much easier to do, and suggest it as a worthwhile exercise. How to do so it beyond the scope of this document, but there are plenty of guides on the internet.
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V0.02 2019-02-12
Normal text: 12 point Open Sans. Emphasis is either by means of
italics, bold, or
both. I don't use
underlined text except for very rare special purposes. CAPITALIZED words can be used if required for extra emphasis, combined with the other methods.
Internal thoughts, or Taylor talking to the Varga inside her head: 12 point Open Sans,
italicized and delimited with single quotes, ie '
This is me thinking.' Emphasis is by means of
bold italics if required.
Underlined text is sometimes used as well, but only if absolutely required.
Speech: As normal text, delimited by double quotes, ie "Hello, I am a writer person!" Emphasis as per normal text as well. However, if the speech is via some method other than from a local source, for example a person on the other end of a phone call, which is still appearing in the text, it is then
italicized as per internal thoughts with the same emphasis method. IE "
This is me talking to you over the radio link from my secret base. Goodbye, Mr Bond. Mua ha ha."
Internal Varga speech: As per normal speech, but colored with a definition of
0x00FFFF and following the same emphasis rules. The coloration includes the quotes.
"Do you think they will even read this far? You do, after all, tend to waffle on..."
External Varga speech: When the Varga is
not talking to someone who knows the truth, but
is talking audibly, the text is as per either normal speech, or remote speech, depending on the requirements, and is uncolored. When he's not trying to hide his true nature, he uses his external Varga voice, which has the color code of
0x99CCFF. Again, quotes are included in the coloration.
"They're really not going to listen, you know. Anyway, this is rather boring so I'm going to find something more interesting to do."
Cloakspeak: As per either internal or external speech rules, as required, but using the color code
0xFF8000. As always, quotes are colored too.
"Hi! You still doing this? Good luck with that. Hey, have you seen Saurial around? I need to show her this new drawing."
Greater Power speech: Luckily, he doesn't turn up very often, but when he sticks his oar in, it uses the color
0xCC99FF and follows the standard speech rules, including colored quotes. He tends to be quite loud, often using text size 5 and above in the SV editor. This corresponds to approximately 18 point. He also occasionally TALKS IN CAPITALS.
"HEY! I RESENT THAT! I can talk more quietly, but you humans just don't LISTEN sometimes."
Text on signs: Uses color code
0x9999FF and is generally formatted to be center-justified and spaced suitably to read like a real sign, where possible.
Underline,
bold, and
italicization can be used in various combinations where needed. Other colors can be used if required and if it would be more amusing.
This Space for Rent.
Inquire within.
Timewasters will be eaten.
Text on computer screens: This uses the font
Courier New and is colored using code
0x99CC00. All formatting methods can be used as appropriate.
System Error 0xD1E0FF: Document excessively pedantic
Different font sizes can be used to indicate a moving sound source, or a fainter than normal voice. Alternative
fonts can be used to good effect in some specific cases, but they don't always render properly on different browsers so they should be kept to a minimum. The default font in the SV editor doesn't appear to be available in the drop-down selector but I believe it is also Open Sans.
Separator between scene switches is:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Left justified, bold, standard text size. One blank line above and one below.
Notes on the chapter or Omake, if required, are above a horizontal rule with one blank line below it. I usually use the color code
0x99CC00 for the text and center justify it.
If the Omake is one of a self-contained series, I place forward and back links to the previous and next chapters, if they exist, at both the top and bottom of the chapter. Links at the top are above a horizontal rule with one blank line under it, links at the bottom are
below a horizontal rule with one blank line
over it. If there is only one link, it is center justified. If there are both forward and back links, they are also center justified with 42 spaces between them. Not 41, and 43 is right out.
42
The → character is used to indicate a forward link, and rather predictably the ← character indicates a backward link.
I recommend that when your source document is finished,
and spell-checked, you select the entire text and set it to the default text size and font, as per the beginning of this guide. Check that all your colors and emphasis is still correct before saving it, ideally as a copy, of course! Close the document and reopen it,
then use the BBKode plugin to convert it to BBcode, copy it from the separate window the tool produces, and paste that into the SV editor. Make any font size and font type changes in the Rich Text editor at that point, preview it, and if it's right post it.
Doing it this way solves the problem that if you have different font sizes and types in your LibreOffice document, the plugin gets very worked up and sticks a completely silly number of font change tags all over the place, especially at the end of the file, which screw up the formatting on the destination. If you find it still does this even so, it may mean you missed a font change somewhere, or you forgot to close the document and reopen it. If you don't do this it sometimes doesn't work correctly.
Obviously, any of the above can be ignored if doing so would be funny…
If any errors or omissions are spotted, let me know and I'll update it.
Free the Lizards!
They watchin U...
