So, I'm playing around with a redesign of the Illustrated Backstory/Primer.
I've mocked up a partial redesign of a combined Backstory/Primer using Google Docs and then PDF'd (see attached).
The separate pages of Docs break it up a bit strangely, but the idea is that each picture with italicized text underneath is the start of a different 'page' in the Backstory. In this case, I've just mocked up the first two parts of the Backstory. They consist of a top image, intro text from the Primer, additional images that somewhat relate to the subject of the intro text and (hopefully) a short story or start of a story (with link to the rest) that also touches on the subject matter.
As mentioned, this is rough, but hopefully gives an idea of what I'm going for here.
I suggest writing the article(s) in the past tense instead of present tense, since they are being written from the viewpoint of someone living in the 11th millennium for whom the initial AT years are in the dim, distant past.
(07-24-2017, 09:12 PM)selden Wrote: I suggest writing the article(s) in the past tense instead of present tense, since they are being written from the viewpoint of someone living in the 11th millennium for whom the initial AT years are in the dim, distant past.
Hm. I have mixed feelings about this.
The original intro text to the Primer is written in the past tense. I had actually shifted it to present tense as part of creating the mockup.
The current Illustrated Backstory and the rest of the Primer outside of the intro are also written in present tense.
Writing in present tense in this fashion is a literary device. It somewhat takes the reader outside of the fourth wall, but not always.
I think the main issue here is whether or not we consider the Backstory/Primer to be 'inside' or 'outside' the fourth wall. I tend to think that they are outside it, since they are mainly aimed at helping new people get up to speed on the setting quickly.
That all said, I'm not super-wedded to writing the intro text in present tense and can switch it back to the original version easily if the consensus is that it should be written that way.
(07-24-2017, 09:48 PM)Avengium Wrote: All the terms seem to be about clades.
The terms are distributed among the pages?
Some of the terms will be distributed among the pages. The remainder will still be in a Glossary that can be linked to at the end of the Backstory/Primer. I haven't got that part done yet.
The first two pages cover a fair bit of information about clades. The next one will likely talk about AIs/Uploads/Vecs and related matters. From there, other topics will be highlighted as we go along.
For an overview of all the intro text, which makes up the introduction to the Primer at this point, see this page here. In the new design, a paragraph from the intro will be at the top of each of the 10 pages of the Backstory.
Will look into this time permitting, glad a drafts been made I don't mind present text given it is external rather than canon but I'm not super fussed.
I decided to break this up in to multiple documents, instead of one big one. One for each page in the current Illustrated Backstory. I'm now up to a total of 5 (halfway - woo hoo! ).
(07-27-2017, 08:09 PM)selden Wrote: Credits for the illustrations are missing, along with titles for the different sections.
Otherwise it looks great!
The sites Content Management System automatically adds the credit for any illustration when it is added from the Image Library. These are just mockups that I'm throwing together using Google Docs.
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to re titles for the different sections. The current Backstory pages don't have titles, although the Primer does. Are you suggesting titles for each of the 10 Backstory pages or something else?
I don't mind present text given it is external rather than canon but I'm not super fussed.
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