Fiction format package?
Steve Kilbane
I've recently been trying to persuade LaTeX to produce documents
using standard manuscript format for fiction; it's not keen.
Ragged-right, courier fonts, double-spaced and large amounts of
underlining don't seem to sit well with LaTeX. I'm hoping that
someone's already gone to the trouble of writing a documentclass
or package that does this, but if not, I guess I'll have to give
it a go myself.
For those who thought "standard?", a description is at:
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/format_betancourt.htm
steve.
Stefan Ulrich
Hi!
Steve Kilbane <st...@whitecrow.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
> I've recently been trying to persuade LaTeX to produce documents
> using standard manuscript format for fiction; it's not keen.
> Ragged-right, courier fonts, double-spaced and large amounts of
> underlining don't seem to sit well with LaTeX.
>
> For those who thought "standard?", a description is at:
>
> http://www.sfwa.org/writing/format_betancourt.htm
This is very horrible indeed ;-)
Of course, the first question that comes to one's mind is:
Why LaTeX, instead of some standard editor?
But finally, making LaTeX produce something that has
absolutely nothing to do with ``masterpieces of the publishing
art'' might provide some sort of (perverse) fun, so here are
some packages and other things that might be useful:
---------- begin manuscript.sty ----------
%%% test version for a style producing manuscript-like output.
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
\ProvidesPackage{manuscript}
\RequirePackage{ragged2e}% ragged text that may be hyphenated
\RequirePackage{geometry}% set margins easily
\RequirePackage{setspace}% doublespacing between lines
\RequirePackage{fancyhdr}%
\RequirePackage[normalem]{ulem}% for underlining
\RequirePackage{parskip}
%% make courier the default font
\renewcommand{\rmdefault}{pcr} %%% could also be cmtt
%% now hyphenation is disabled (\hyphenchar is -1).
%% re-enable it:
\newcommand{\@orig@normalfont}{}
\let\@orig@normalfont=\normalfont
\renewcommand{\normalfont}{\@orig@normalfont \hyphenchar\font=`\-}
%% setup margins
\geometry{right=1in, top=1in, left=1in, bottom=1in}
%% setup headings
\pagestyle{fancy}
\rhead{\@author /\@title /\thepage}
\lhead{}
\cfoot{}
\rfoot{}
\lfoot{}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\addtolength{\headheight}{\baselineskip}
%%% redefine chapter heading style
\renewcommand{\@makechapterhead}[1]{%
\clearpage
\thispagestyle{fancy}
{\parindent \z@ \raggedright \normalfont
\ifnum \c@secnumdepth >\m@ne
\normalfont \@chapapp\space \thechapter:
\fi
\interlinepenalty\@M
\uline{#1}\par\nobreak
\vskip\baselineskip
}}
%%% this is set to zero by ragged2e and parskip
\setlength{\RaggedRightParindent}{2em}
\RaggedRight
\onehalfspacing %%% or doublespacing?
%% maybe use this instead of parskip.sty?
%\setlength{\parskip}{\baselineskip}
%%% make \author and \title produce funny output when
%%% not specified in the document
\renewcommand{\author}[1]{\gdef\@author{#1}}
\renewcommand{\title}[1]{\gdef\@title{#1}}
{\catcode`\|=0 \catcode`\\=12
|gdef|bslash{\}}
\def\@author{<no \bslash author given!>}
\def\@title{<no \bslash title given!>}
%%% the titlepage
\renewcommand{\maketitle}{%
\begin{titlepage}
\null\vfil
\begin{center}
\uline{\@title} %%% sets the title; could also be \uline{\@title}
\par\vskip\baselineskip
by \@author
\par
\end{center}\par
\vfil\null
\end{titlepage}
}
---------- end manuscript.sty ----------
Use like this:
---------- begin test.tex ----------
\documentclass[12pt,oneside]{report} %%% or book
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{manuscript}
\author{D. E. Author}
\title{My novel}
\hyphenation{man-u-script}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\chapter{The first chapter}
I've recently been trying to persuade LaTeX to
produce {\bfseries\itshape documents}
using standard \emph{manuscript} format
for \uline{fiction}; it's not keen.
\end{document}
---------- end test.tex ----------
Comments are welcome...
Have fun,
Stefan.
--
Stefan Ulrich, Elsaesserstr. 15, 81667 Muenchen
Karsten Tinnefeld
Steve Kilbane wrote:
> I've recently been trying to persuade LaTeX to produce documents
> using standard manuscript format for fiction; it's not keen.
> Ragged-right, courier fonts, double-spaced and large amounts of
> underlining don't seem to sit well with LaTeX.
This includes quite a lot of features that are to add to the known plain
LaTeX document formats. After all, there is another point about the web
site. It is about writing manuscripts, LaTeX is for typesetting books.
No editor would never typeset a whole book in courier (except for very
special purposes: simulation of 1970s dissertations and stuff), because
it is monospaced: With i's as wide as M's.
A sensible editor might discuss an electronic format for submitting your
book anyhow - it's that cheap to her! Anyway, take a look at the online
catalogue for some packages that might aid you to create your own
manuscript:
ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/catalogue.html
And take care to use generic markup: Define speaking commands first,
then use only them.
--
\bye, Karsten.
Karsten Tinnefeld <tinn...@irb.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>
Anwendungssoftware <soft...@irb.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>
Computer Science Dept. Informatik Rechnerbetriebsgruppe
University of Dortmund D-44221 Dortmund / Germany
Phone +49 231 755 4700 PGP Key available via finger
,,All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy;
for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must
die to one life before we can enter another.`` Anatole France
Rebecca and Rowland
Stefan Ulrich <ulr...@cis.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Steve Kilbane <st...@whitecrow.demon.co.uk> writes:
> >
> > I've recently been trying to persuade LaTeX to produce documents
> > using standard manuscript format for fiction; it's not keen.
> > Ragged-right, courier fonts, double-spaced and large amounts of
> > underlining don't seem to sit well with LaTeX.
True - LaTeX is built on TeX, which exists to allow you to avoid this
sort of horrid stuff.
[snip]
> \RequirePackage{ragged2e}% ragged text that may be hyphenated
I think the idea is that the text should *not* be hyphenated.
Something like \rightskip=0pt plus1fil ought to do the job.
[snip]
Although it's probably not a bad idea to agree on an electronic
submission format with the publisher.
Rowland.
--
Remove the animal for my email address: reb...@astrid.dog.u-net.com
Sorry - the spam got to me.
PGP pub key A680B89D; fingerprint: F5605EAE F56F2C0B 818F3319 5227767F
What? Don't ask me - I don't know.
Steve Kilbane
First off: thanks for the various suggestions that have been made - they've
helped a lot.
In article <1d5vaat.h4k...@p29.nas4.is2.u-net.net>, real-addr...@rhu.barb.foobar (Rebecca and Rowland) writes:
> True - LaTeX is built on TeX, which exists to allow you to avoid this
> sort of horrid stuff.
Yup. I was asked "why not just use a normal text editor?" Well, apart
from LaTeX being my hammer of choice for any particular nail, it's
also that while editors might like this format, I hate it. If I can
have a class that'll produce something readable most of the time,
and then generate the required monstrosity at the end, I'll be a
happy bunny,
> Although it's probably not a bad idea to agree on an electronic
> submission format with the publisher.
Ha. Not likely to happen, unfortunately.
Here's the way it works in the short fiction world: you produce a story,
print it, and hawk it around to the various editors, until one of them
accepts it. They all go for the courier/doublespace/ragged/underline format
because it allows them to estimate the space it required according to their
final format, and it allows their copy-editors to put marks in easily.
They don't, generally, go for electronic submission because their eyes
get tired enough reading from paper, never mind print, and they're not about
to pay to print out several hundred submissions a day.
This is, of course, entirely different from a commissioned piece, which
would be more suitable for electronic submission.
steve
David Carlisle
If memory serves you will find a set of fixed width fonts on ctan
in the pica collection, including an underline and a wavy underline
font.
ah yes, see below
David
ftp> cd fonts/cmpica/
250-Please read the file README.cmp
250- it was last modified on Thu Jan 19 10:10:01 1995 - 1151 days ago
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> get README.cmp
The CMPICA family was created by Don Hosek in 1988 to fill a need for
a usable face for submitting fiction manuscripts to mainline
publishers. Changes to parameters were made to create a face with
roughly the same proportions as the Xerox Pica typeface available for
use on Xerox laser printers and some changes to encoding were added as
well so that TeX input conventions could be used to produce output
that matched standard typescript conventions. In short, `` and ''
become a straight double quote, ` and ' become a straight single
quote, --- becomes -- and -- becomes -. In addition, two auxiliary
fonts are provided: cmpicati underlines characters and cmpicab
underlines characters with a squiggly underline. Either of these fonts
may be used as a model of how to apply the same effect to other
MF-generated types.
A modified version of the original companion LaTeX [2.09] style can be
found floating around on the net if one looks hard. A companion math
face was proposed but never completed. It was envisioned to be a mix
of typewriter-style characters and hand-drawn letters to give the full
antediluvian effect.
Don Hosek
Quixote Digital Typography
dho...@quixote.com
fax: 909-625-1342
Quixote Digital Typography
In article <yg44t0y...@andover.nag.co.uk>,
David Carlisle <dav...@nag.co.uk> wrote:
>If memory serves you will find a set of fixed width fonts on ctan
>in the pica collection, including an underline and a wavy underline
>font.
>ftp> cd fonts/cmpica/
>250-Please read the file README.cmp
>250- it was last modified on Thu Jan 19 10:10:01 1995 - 1151 days ago
>250 CWD command successful.
>ftp> get README.cmp
I've been working on a LaTeX2e-based class file for fiction MS
setting. It's a bit unkempt at the moment, but if anyone's interested
I can comb it out a bit and get it onto CTAN.
-dh
--
Don Hosek dho...@quixote.com Quixote Digital Typography
312/953-3679 fax: 312/803-0698 orders: 800-810-3311
For information about SERIF: THE MAGAZINE OF TYPE & TYPOGRAPHY,
http://www.quixote.com/serif/ or mail serif...@quixote.com
Steve Kilbane
>
> I've recently been trying to persuade LaTeX to produce documents
> using standard manuscript format for fiction; it's not keen.
Numerous people made helpful suggestions, and I've included
what I'm now using. By default, the manuscript package produces
nice, readable text with the current date on the title page. This
is for drafts. When I'm finished, I can add the [submit] option,
and it turns into the ghod-awful beast required, with courier,
doubles-spacing, ragged margins and underlining, and the date is
replaced by my address.
Thanks to all.
steve