I finished writing the more recent chapter of my fanfic, Rainbow in the dark, and I added a musical number because I want to capture better the spirit of the cartoon. The question is, how does one format and write in text form?

943625 Italics or bold, usually italics.

depends what are you using for other parts
i use italics for thoughts, and interior monologues
caps for angry screaming
bold for emphasis on certain words
you could change the font or use indentations or center alignment or colors
it depends on what you also have in your story
it is very important to be consistent and not to use the same markings for different things
for example the use of italics for both thoughts and book titles.

I prefer to centre it and have it in italics as well as quotations. Since italics are thinking and quotations are speaking, I'd like to think that singing is a combination of both.

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Whenever I see a song stuck into a fanfic I instantly stop reading and downvote.

That's not very nice.

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Whenever I see a song stuck into a fanfic I instantly stop reading and downvote.

Well, every party has a pooper.

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Whenever I see a song stuck into a fanfic I instantly stop reading and downvote.

Ya, I'm kinda the same way some times, especially if its not formatted properly and breaks up the story a bit. I don't downvote the story though, I'll just stop following the story (just had to do that with a story yesterday in fact, the style of the writing didn't help much either).

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So you do this without offering author any criticism, without commenting. You just go "Song? DISLIKE!" ?

Think about it, Equestria is one really musical world. It makes sense that the songs would happen at some point in the story. It just is the matter of whether or not it fits with the story.

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What if the story itself is amazing? What if the characters have need to sing? In the episodes they sing whenever they feel strong emotions about something, why wouldn't they do it in the fanfics? What if the formatting is still good?

SImply stopping following a story when you see a song is horrible. If the story really caught your attention, you should keep reading it, see where it goes with it.

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

943752

clearly

Clearly.

Songs are awesome

943631

This is pretty much why I ignore downvotes without comments.

943705

What if the story itself is amazing? What if the characters have need to sing? In the episodes they sing whenever they feel strong emotions about something, why wouldn't they do it in the fanfics? What if the formatting is still good?

If the story is well written then I will surely stay and continue, if the song is interesting too I will read it as well but formatting is key otherwise I skip them for the most part. For the most part if it is poorly formatted then I would leave (the story itself, most often than not is also poorly formatted and has lots of errors).

943788
That's the internet for ya.

943788
I sent no hate your way. Check the address -- the mailmare gets confused sometimes.

If you left a comment in a story like "This had a song, so I immediately stopped reading and downvoted," I'd know the reason for the downvote, though admittedly I'd till ignore it as a matter of strong and unusual individual preference on your part.

My point was that a downvote without a comment, even if it's not trolling, could be unusual personal behavior, like yours, that would have no impact on me or what I write. It'd be like someone who downvoted every time he saw a story mention "Niagara Falls."

943788

You should be more specific then. If you say the sky is black, you also have to say that it is black at night.

943825

But the thing is, I never said I didn't comment, It's not hard to leave a comment pointing out the Nightmare of a layout that is usually created, or at the very least, a break in the flow of the story.

I never said that you do not comment. What I said was that without a comment I should (and do) assume that the downvote may be for one reader's peculiar reaction.

I've found that songs don't get that great a reception in fics. At least, not commensurate with the work that goes into them.

I was actually extremely nervous about putting an entire song in one of my fanfics, and most of the revisions I did to the fanfic were to that section. As it turned out, it wound up with a 43 like 1 dislike ratio, so I'm assuming what I did worked.

Basically Sweetie Belle started singing, and then Ditzy Doo joins in a duet. I centered the song lyrics and broke it up with descriptive text every two lines or so. I also only actually typed out the chorus once, and just mentioned it being sung the other times.

And at the end, they talk about it, and it's clear that it's a song they happened to both be familiar with.

Of course, I may have gotten away with it for silliness value, and how it started. "Then something she had missed occurred to her. Weren't all quests supposed to start with an epic music number?"

I'd provide a link, but, you know, I'm rather reluctant to do that in a thread where multiple people have said they instantly downvote fanfics with songs in them. Given it's the only fanfic of mine with a picture of Sweetie Belle for cover art, it's easy enough to find, anyways.

Literary prowess aside, I've been through 9 years of music school, so I see myself as fairly knowledgeable on this subject. And... I don't do songs in writing. Not really. Yes, it can be done well, and I've written my fair share of songs and lyrics besides, but that's not the point. If you want something that reads well on its own, without a melody, then you write a poem. Not a song. It can well be that you have a melody to it as you write it, but in the end it's just a poem to your readers' eyes.

And that can be done well enough as well. But keep in mind - when it doesn't have a melody, it's just a poem.

You can just give them a link or something, but that's just WRONG. Nothing breaks immersion like a link.

943631
You mean a link to the song they are referencing instead of working the song into the story?
Because I'd do the same.

943631 You have no soul.