Form and Function
It’s a serious question, and I am unwilling to engage in too many invasive ways to answer the question, so we’re left with my own senses. The question, whether it is better to have each sign’s horoscope lumped as a single paragraph, or if it is better to break up the flow of the text with line breaks, carriage returns, pull-quotes, drop caps, and sub-paragraphs. As further questions, addendums, bulleted items, numbered lists, asides, block quotes, sidebars, and footnotes1?
Form and Function
When I’m actively working on the horoscopes themselves, in the unlikely event it isn’t obvious2, I tend to work through each sign’s passage in a single take.
Usually, anyway.
Sometimes I’ll wander off for coffee or bathroom break, on rare occasions when the phone rings I’ll answer it, or the doorbell, there are interruptions, but I tend to work through each sign, in a single moment. Minutes. Hours.
So the idea is originally packaged as a single paragraph, usually between 100 and 200 words, but even then, that varies. The old adage, “Long enough to cover the subject, short enough to keep it interesting.”
Is breaking it up into smaller byte-sized, bite-sized line breaks more important? Or is it better to keep it all together as a single, coherent whole?
Form and Function
The original question that was so similar, many years distant, probably pre-Y2K? In its original format, there was a placeholder for each sign, a distinct template, and container, for each sign. That meant twelve separate files plus an introduction, so thirteen files, which, in turn means at least a dozen — or more — spaces for errors.
From a mileage point of view, or rather, for more “clicks that pay,” the individual signs were good. From my administrative point, though, a single column makes much more sense, as that is just — on an order of ten or more — easier to handle.
So it’s that fine line between ease of administration, room for errors, and what looks best.
Form and Function
From a technical point3, I never did figure out how to break the signs up then have them hold together as an archive, so there is that. The one, long format is way superior, and after 30 years, surely makes more sense.
From a printing point, the single paragraph per sign definitely makes more sense, but the web allows for additional white space, and sometimes, from a literary and philosophical point? It’s not what is said, it is what is left unsaid.
“Fill in the blanks.”
Form and Function
Over the years, and I have no definitive answer, but over the years, I’ve experimented a little with this. Sometimes it works.
There were two Sagittarius that often opined about my material. I would listen to what they had to say, merely because, well, brothers and sisters.
“Family” understands.
astrofish.net/contact
Form and Function
I had an example of this process in action4. When I started and for the first half-dozen years? I published the weekly on Sunday might, so it would roll over on Monday morning. In fact, at one time, early web years, I was one of the highest trafficked sites on that server, on Mondays. Back in the bad old days when “unlimited” meant unlimited. Moved to Thursday publication then, more recently, to a Tuesday date.
Behind the scenes, unbeknownst, I toyed with throwing in the towel, capitulating completely, and going back to just a monthly publication. Dark times during and at the end of the pandemic. But a long period of rest and reflection brought me back to the weekly that I enjoy (mostly).
This is process5, and what I’m alluding to when I’m looking for a way to weight form and function against mere style.
Tuesday, besides the title of my favorite weblog-to-book6, seems to be the day when there is just enough time for rest and reflection.
Form and Function
Form and Function? It’s still experimental and experiential.
Some things just don’t change.
DIY Themes
Notes:
• Own the building.
• Early bullet points.
• Rethinking design.
• Make good choices.
