Ezmirelda On Writing: MS Format

One of the first things I learned when I got into novel-writing was manuscript format. I personally love the format and use it even when I know no one’s going to see it. It’s clean, easy to read, and easy to edit.

Font

12 point Times New Roman

Courier New (I don’t really like this font)

Margins

1 inches on all sides

Page Header

Your name/Name of your book/page # in the top right corner of the screen.

Paragraphs


Double spaced, the first sentences of each new paragraph should be indented (5 spaces).

Don’t put any extra spaces between paragraphs; it’s already double spaced.

When you use em dashes (--) don’t put spaces before and after it. If your word processor can make the connected em dash (—) then use that one instead.

Chapters

Start  chapters on new pages.

Center the title and start about 1/3 of the way down the page.

Scene breaks

I use either # or *** centered as a scene break.

I’ve seen people do all sorts of things for this like ~*~*~ or - - - - - - -

I think it’s kind of distracting, and I advise people not to do it.

Then there’s the Cover Page . It’s more often used by people who are pursuing publication.

• Your contact information/ or your agent’s

• The title of your story

• Word count

A site that has lots of good info on manuscript format is William Shunn’s, although I’m not sure if the part about underlining instead of using italics is outdated or not. You might want to check up on that.

Ezmirelda On Writing: MS Format