alaterdate | And Now a Gripe (Reply)

People who read on AO3 tend to say things like "I back out of a fic if there's SPAG issues and especially if the paragraphs are too dense." (I read a lot of fandom secrets. I have seen this sentiment on so many secrets about AO3.)

I simply do not understand this sentiment and also I am offended as the king of typos and as a long paragraph enjoyer. Honestly ever since I started using that site I've had difficulty with trying to format my writing into the site's "style." I dislike breaking up my paragraphs. Sometimes a thematic idea spans more than just a few lines, okay.

Not that I'm going to post it on AO3 (for reasons beyond this post), but I'm editing a fic right now and I still keep thinking about where to chop it up. There are perfectly good reasons to divide lines, one of them not being because it's "too long."

Relatedly-ish. I cannot stand the way French novels do dialogue. Why is the actual dialog and the tags and/or actions in one ambiguous long line (Yes, yes, the tenses delineate I know, I just don't clock them that quickly). (Maybe it's also a newer style or just with translations that there's no guillemets? Emmanuel Carrère's La Moustache has guillemets, but I haven't seen them in other books so far.) It drives me crazy. However, I'm not a little weak ass about it.

I have made it a mission to bring this frustration to English readers in another fic I am working on where when they talk in French I am going to use this horrible style of punctuation. Also not gonna post that one on AO3, but to anyone who would absolutely hate this and leave I have but one response:

— Then perish, I say as the room is suddenly tinted red. Your focus is brought to the look of apathy in my eyes. Die mad about it.