MANUSCRIPT FORMAT
Submitting your manuscript in standard format is critical. Editors, agents, and publishers may not even read a badly formatted manuscript. (I certainly do not.)
Your manuscript should contain 12 point Times Roman, formatted ‘left’ (never ‘justified’), with 1” margins all around, double spaced, with paragraph indents, no ‘extra’ space between paragraphs, and with a header on each page providing your name, the title, and page number. Always include a word count, and always include the following four elements:
1. Header: Last name, title, and page number, on every page except the first. If the manuscript is dropped (especially along with other manuscripts), the editor/agent needs to be able to reassemble it, and without a proper header, this will be impossible. Result? Rejection.
2. Double-Spaced: Always double-space manuscripts. Editors/agents need space for line-edits and marginal notes, and their eyes need a break: reading page after page of single-spaced copy is rigorous on the eyes.
3. Font: You have three choices for font: Times New Roman 12 point, Times New Roman 12 point, or Times New Roman 12 point. Don’t waste anyone’s time with any other font or size: Times New Roman 12 point is the industry standard. If you’re an artist and you want to be creative, go out and paint a picture. If you want to be a writer and get your work published, learn the industry standard. Oh, yes, did I mention what that is? You’ve been reading it on every page of this text: It’s Times New Roman 12 point!
4. Left-Formatting: Sometimes called ‘left-justification,’ but to avoid confusion (because Microsoft Word calls one of its formatting options ‘justified’) I call it Left-Formatting, which means jagged right-hand margins. You do not want your right-hand margin to be a straight line like the left-hand margin. Why? Because typesetters and printing presses can adjust the space between words and letters to arrive at a straight right-hand margin and still present a readable text. But Microsoft Word cannot adjust the space between the letters, only between the words:
This paragraph is ‘Justified,’ and you can see that while the right hand margin is a straight line, the spaces between the words are irregular, resulting in some words with short spaces in between, others with longer spaces. The effect, when reading many pages at a time, as editors and agents do, is that this is difficult on the eyes. You may not think this paragraph difficult to read, but if you had several pages of it, you would notice. Therefore, do not use ‘Justified’ formatting, but always use ‘Left’ formatting, and your editors and agents will be thankful, and they will read at least the first page of your submission.
Additional considerations:
Use margins of 1” on top, bottom, and both sides. Indent paragraphs 5 spaces, and use 1 space between sentences (not 2, as in the old days of the typewriter). Do not use underlining for emphasis (again, as in the old days of the typewriter), but use italics.
Finally, if you want to indicate a ‘white space’ to demarcate a break in the time sequence, or setting, etc., do not get fancy and artistic, with asterisks, or tildes, or flowery squirrely-cues. There is one and only one convention to indicate a white space in a text:
###
That’s it, and don’t even try to add a space between these. Nobody cares what it looks like, it’s not for looks, it a standard typographers notation to let the typesetter know that a white space must be added here. It is especially important not to forget this and just leave 2 double-spaces in the text, because after revising and editing, that space may wind up at the bottom of a page, and no one will know that a white space was intended. Just use the 3 pound signs and get on with the story.
DIALOG FORMAT
Proper dialog format can be difficult to learn. However, if you pull any book off your shelf, a favorite novel, a favorite story, and look carefully at the dialog, you will learn that there is a convention to dialog formatting, and that it is universal, and consistent. Every once in a while you may find a book whose dialog is formatted unconventionally, but those cases are rare. Open any book and pay attention to the dialog. This book is already open, and there are stories in it, so you can begin by looking at some of those.
The best way to explain the rules of formatting dialogue is to use an example. We will follow the steps required in formatting the following passage of dialogue:
Where are you going Duncan said Well I’m going down to Rosedale Pete said Anyone going with you Duncan said Take my rider by my side Pete said What can you do there Duncan said You can still barrelhouse baby Pete said Where Duncan asked On the riverside Pete said
Formatting Dialogue, Rule 1: New Speaker, New Line
This is a pretty easy rule to apply. Each time a new speaker speaks, you place the line of dialogue on a new line. This line should also be indented (assuming you are indenting new paragraphs). We can see how this applies to our example (note that each new paragraph is indented):
Where are you going Duncan said
Well I’m going down to Rosedale Pete said
Anyone going with you Duncan said
Take my rider by my side Pete said
Formatting Dialogue: Adding Quotation Marks
Our next rule says that all speech should be placed within quotation marks:
“Where are you going” Duncan said
“Well I’m going down to Rosedale” Pete said
“Anyone going with you” Duncan said
“Take my rider by my side” Pete said
Formatting Dialogue: Punctuation
When writing dialogue you will often use dialog ‘tags’. These are verbs that link the spoken words with the remainder of the sentence. Commonly used tags includes said, asked, replied and more (although, if you are wise, you will adhere to Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Writers and use only the ubiquitous ‘said.’ More on this later.) Without going into the technical detail, to correctly punctuate spoken words and tags you must link them using a comma. If you use a full stop (period) the sentences are broken and it no longer makes sense. In our example, we see:
“Where are you going” Duncan said.
This is a single sentence and therefore must end with a full stop, so it needs a period at the end. However, the dialog tag in this sentence is Duncan said, and this must be connected to the speech. If you added a full stop at the end of the spoken words, it would separate the tag and prematurely end the sentence:
“Where are you going.” Duncan said. [INCORRECT, because these are two separate sentences.]
Instead we must link the spoken word and the tag with punctuation (usually a comma, as follows:
“Where are you going,” Duncan said. [ALMOST CORRECT]
However, because this line is a question, the proper punctuation is a question mark, which still serves as punctuation and connects the dialog with the tag:
“Where are you going?” Duncan said. [CORRECT, even though this looks like two sentences.]
So, our entire passage would appear as follows:
“Where are you going?” Duncan said.
“Well I’m going down to Rosedale,” Pete said.
“Anyone going with you?” Duncan said.
“Take my rider by my side,” Pete said.
“What can you do there?” Duncan said.
“You can still barrelhouse, baby,” Pete said.
“Where?” Duncan asked.
“On the riverside,” Pete said. “You can run.”
Note that we do not need to begin a new paragraph for “You can run” in the last line because the speaker is still Pete. As long as it’s the same speaker, there is no need for a new paragraph. But once someone else speaks, a new paragraph is required, and it must be indented.
Again, pull a book off your shelf and look at the dialog. This is the simplest thing to learn if you pay attention to published stories. We tend to read stories without paying attention to the details of formatting, but now that you are aware of the proper conventions for dialog formatting, you will see that these are observed in published stories, and you can use the proper formatting conventions in your own work.