RayLeigh

陈仓颉

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Changes in Writing and Formatting Habits

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The author has followed specific rules for writing since they started writing. These rules have changed over time. They used to write in a notebook with a pen, starting from the second page and gradually making their handwriting smaller. In school, they wrote novels, game logs, and scripts. In high school, they started writing freely without any rules, often expressing negative thoughts. In college, they started writing more seriously in notebooks, recording their thoughts and feelings. They also started using keyboards to write on various platforms. They initially liked using traditional characters and half-width punctuation marks. As they grew older, they developed a respect for writing and learned about proper formatting. They now have specific rules for their writing, such as using correct punctuation, spacing, and paragraph breaks. They also follow brand and vocabulary guidelines. However, they understand that everyone has their own writing style and focus on the content rather than the formatting when reading others' work.

From the beginning of writing, I have followed certain specific rules. These rules have changed over time, and the initial version is different from the current version.

Excluding school assignments during my school years, when I write for interest, my tools are a pen and a small notebook. I always leave the first page of the notebook empty (both sides) and start writing from the second line of the second page. There is no special motivation, I just feel that starting to write like this has a sense of ceremony. In addition, my handwriting gets smaller and smaller. Initially, the words could fill a line, but by the second half of the page, the square characters only occupy less than half of a line's height. This was a bad habit, but I later changed it. During elementary and middle school, I wrote two (unfinished) novels, a game development journal, a collection of skit scripts, as well as adapted song lyrics and random thoughts.

In high school, I no longer followed any rules. I didn't write line by line anymore, but instead wrote wherever and however I felt like it, using any language and any sentence length. Most of these sentences were aggressive, filled with dissatisfaction towards society, and a lot of negative attitudes and thoughts. Fortunately, my high school Chinese teacher taught in an enjoyable way, and her comments to me are still on my blog's about page. I am very grateful to her.

The habit of writing in notebooks continued into college. As an adult, I started writing seriously and bought several hardcover A5 notebooks to write diaries and reflections on reading the Bible. I wrote two of these notebooks, and the handwriting went from meticulous to free-spirited, taking three years. The font itself is not the most important thing, but these words recorded friendships, love, rebellious thoughts, and patriotism during my naive youth.

The above is physical writing, but I am more accustomed to recording more words through a keyboard. Various blogging platforms have divided my writing into two distinct periods, from childhood to the present.

At first, I liked using traditional Chinese characters because I believed it was "orthodox," so most of what I wrote in my diary was in traditional characters. Now, it's really hard to read those fancy traditional characters on paper. I also liked using half-width characters. I used half-width punctuation marks for commas, periods, exclamation marks, and other punctuation marks to save space. Therefore, I have a special preference for using ellipses (during my edgy phase): typing more than six half-width periods and occasionally adding two slashes at the end (//). Looking back, those words look like a bunch of caterpillars crawling on a pile of yarn.

As I grew older, I became more and more in awe of writing and developed a systematic understanding of typesetting. Blogs and public accounts have become indispensable nutrients in my life, and excellent authors and their typesetting have subtly influenced me. As a result, my writing gradually developed the following main rules:

  • Strictly adhere to the correct use of Chinese and English punctuation in formal articles (with some exceptions);
  • Leave a space after the punctuation at the end of an English sentence before starting a new sentence;
  • Use a space to differentiate between Chinese and English outside of the beginning and end of a sentence;
  • Use full-width symbols for Chinese sentences and half-width symbols for Latin sentences;
  • Leave a blank line between paragraphs (this habit comes from understanding Markdown syntax);
  • Use 【】 or "" for quotation marks (I dislike straight quotation marks);
  • Strictly adhere to the writing style of brands or fixed vocabulary (iPhone/iCloud/OneDrive/WordPress, etc.)

Most of these rules align with the "Chinese Copywriting Guidelines" and this article was inspired by it. Because I am used to this typesetting and have a slight OCD, I feel quite uncomfortable when I read articles online that do not conform to the format, especially those that use half-width punctuation marks in Chinese or do not follow fixed writing styles. However, I cannot impose my personal preferences on others. I will only focus on the content of what others write, as that is the core. Typesetting is just surface work, making it more comfortable to read.

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