You don't want this to happen.

So seeing as recently a topic for each of the library forums has popped up in GD, esp. on the subject of how little attention stories are receiving these days, that got me thinking a bit... from my own experience, I'd like to say that perhaps part of the fault lies on neither the writing nor the readers... but the formatting.

Like, look here, see what I just did? I double-returned between paragraphs. Why do I do that? Well, because it keeps this blog entry-- and my posts in general-- from looking like a wall of text. No matter what the content may be, when people are confronted with a wall of text the first reaction is, "Whoa, no way I'm reading that."

By wall of text I mean long, unbroken text. I see this not infrequently around the library forums. Sure, in your word processor, with indented paragraphs and justified text, it looks perfectly readable, but let me bring up a visual comparison: I took the same lorem ipsum text and stuck it in two different contexts.

See the difference? In the book page, the paragraph indents and the empty space after the paragraphs provide a nice "breather" between thoughts. Not to mention fewer words are on each line. In the end, this serves to break the text up into nice, manageable-looking pieces that are more comfortable to read.

On a webpage, the font is generally much smaller compared to the width of the average screen resolution, so paragraphs end up flatter, wider, with more text on each line, and a bit more daunting to read. Not to mention most forums don't give you the option of indenting the beginning of a paragraph or justifying your text, so the ends of your lines will be all over the place and it's less clear when a paragraph ends.

Aside from the whole "manageable chunks" thing, you feel less... "lost," call it, when everything's broken up. For one thing it's much easier to lose your place while reading when you can't see the boundaries of a paragraph. You might end up reading the same line over and over again. You might end up reading the same line over and over again. You might end up okay I stole this joke from Lemony Snicket.

That's why, among other things, double space between paragraphs! People will be less frightened to read your story, or post as the case may be. As a corollary to that, don't make your paragraphs too long! Now I'm not trying to hinder you if you want to write a long, descriptive passage-- just suggesting it's something to keep in mind.

I mean, this is just mostly stuff I've noticed personally. I know when I enter a library topic and see all the paragraphs squished together, I shudder a bit at the prospect of trying to read that.

Anyway yeah, just my thoughts. May be vaguely disjointed since I typed this while multitasking.