Exactly how important is format/orientation to readers?

[Nole786]

Hey I'm writing a new novel called Twin Fates (down below) and as I upload and post I wonder do how much do reader care how the words are arranged on the page. Like paragraph blocks and one line per dialogue.

Twin Fates

A set of twins created with mysterious purpose, but separated by fate set out on their respective paths in a magical and savage world where power is everything. Please read, comment, and check out the glossary. Happy Quarantine Folks! * I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE*

www.scribblehub.com

 

[Nerodith]

Well, I once read a story presented like a peom. It was written in prose, but the chapter was arranged in paragraph blocks, each of the same size. At first, it was visually pleasing, I'm not goint to lie. But the line breaks were so random (it wasn't even at the end of a sentence or right after a comma, sometime it would be right in the middle of a sentence, so long as the paragraph keep a consistence size) it completely broke the immersion. It was so frustrating I had to drop the story.

So yes, the format is important.
But I've checked your writing style, and nothing seems out of the ordinary so far, so you should be fine.

 

[ludagad]

Extremely important. It's enough to turn me away from a good novel if it's hard on my eyes.

 

[AliceShiki]

As long as it is readable and follows proper grammar, you can go whatever.

Like, as long as there are proper breaks in the sentences before you start a new paragraph and what not, all is good.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Like everything said above; appropriately sized paragraphs, correct grammar, and sensible punctuation. It incentivices readers to keep reading by tidy presentation alone and, if your story turns out to be a slow start to a grand reveal, might actually do you more favours than you'd initially think.

I don't know about others but for me it's a deal breaker. Countless times I've been recommended as "unheard gems" or "masterpieces" and dropped that shit harder than Micheal Jordan's helicopter due to the annoying and incessant use of "!!!!!!!" or walls of paragraphs that could be seen by astronauts up in the ISS. I don't care if you got the Rosetta Stone of storytelling if the price of experiencing it is a free trip to an optician and an anger management class.

 

[AliceShiki]

Like everything said above; appropriately sized paragraphs, correct grammar, and sensible punctuation. It incentivices readers to keep reading by tidy presentation alone and, if your story turns out to be a slow start to a grand reveal, might actually do you more favours than you'd initially think.

I don't know about others but for me it's a deal breaker. Countless times I've been recommended as "unheard gems" or "masterpieces" and dropped that shit harder than Micheal Jordan's helicopter due to the annoying and incessant use of "!!!!!!!" or walls of paragraphs that could be seen by astronauts up in the ISS. I don't care if you got the Rosetta Stone of storytelling if the price of experiencing it is a free trip to an optician and an anger management class.

Oh yeah, I always wonder how people sometimes think it is a good idea to express their thoughts in a huge wall of text with 0 spacing and no proper punctuation to make things easier to read. (Reddit is the most common place I see it, but I saw it a fair amount of times in roleplays too)

... Like... Hello? Did you ever see anyone in your life use walls of text without spacing to properly convey a message? How is it that hard to realize spacing is a basic requirement to make things readable!? >.<

I don't mind the excessive exclamation marks and stuff as much though, I mean... They're a bit annoying, but at least they don't get in the way of my experience...

 

[Trashlyn]

So a paragraph should be a single idea, an observation (description) and character's thoughts on it (1st person narration) might be a single paragraph. You might have a little paragraph for a characters line of dialogue, the dialogue descriptors and maybe a description of that characters body language and actions while speaking or reacting to the previous character's dialogue etc.

Varied paragraph size is important not just for tracking the flow of ideas on the page, helping the reader keep track of where they are and building the atmosphere and speed of the scene. A short single word or sentence paragraph is often great for onomatopoeia or something dramatic like the character going "Fuck me..." in response to some shitty situation.

Scenes with lots of action and fighting you might want to have lots of short paragraphs made up of short sentences not loaded with too much description, adjectives or adverbs. This conveys the speed of the scene, also in first person narration the character is less likely to be spending a lot of time narrating details.