One of the things I always worried about when I first started writing, rightly or wrongly, was how my manuscript was formatted. I knew this wasn’t the thing I should be focusing on. What I should be worrying about was the content. The story, the characters etc. But I wanted to write my story with the correct formatting so at the end, I wouldn’t have to go back and reformat the entire document in the way publishers and agents expect.
So here are some tips from my limited experience.
1. If you have Microsoft Word, use the ‘Book Manuscript’ template. It’s free from the Microsoft website. This is great to start you off. It uses Times New Roman font, size 12 and has the correct title page and margin sizes.
2. Some people ask what font you should use. On my last book I used Courier New, but in the manuscript I’m currently working on I’m staying with Times New Roman. As long as it’s clear and the spacing between the letters is constant, it’s all good. Don’t go for the pretty one with the twirly-whirly r’s.
3. Make sure your font is size 12, the text should be double spaced.
4. I always put a page break between chapters. You do this by pressing CTRL RETURN. Then I hit the return key five times and write the chapter number/title. I then hit the RETURN key twice more and I’m ready to start writing my chapter.
5. Another thing worth doing is to select ‘Heading 2’ for chapter headings. What this does is create a sort of bookmark in the Navigation panel. So when you’ve got a book of 80,000 words you can have the Navigation panel up on the left side of the screen and quickly move between the chapters.
6. In the header, write your last name and a couple of words from the title. The ‘Book Manuscript’ template places page numbers in the correct order, so you shouldn’t have to do anything with regard to them.
7. It’s worth checking how the actual formatting looks by selecting the hide/show hidden formatting key. This will show up stray paragraphs or extra spaces you weren’t intending to be there. Worth going through your manuscript to clean up those little errors.
8. When you want to create a break within a chapter press RETURN twice then use the # symbol centred. Then hit RETURN twice again and start the next section of the chapter. This tells the agent/publisher that there is definitely a break and not just a formatting error.
9. Always use underlining in place of italics. This will be replaced when you come to publishing but for manuscript purposes, again, underlining is clearer to the agent/publisher than italics.
10. At the end, write THE END. One hopes it would be obvious but doesn’t hurt to make sure it’s clear.
1. If you have Microsoft Word, use the ‘Book Manuscript’ template. It’s free from the Microsoft website. This is great to start you off. It uses Times New Roman font, size 12 and has the correct title page and margin sizes.
2. Some people ask what font you should use. On my last book I used Courier New, but in the manuscript I’m currently working on I’m staying with Times New Roman. As long as it’s clear and the spacing between the letters is constant, it’s all good. Don’t go for the pretty one with the twirly-whirly r’s.
3. Make sure your font is size 12, the text should be double spaced.
4. I always put a page break between chapters. You do this by pressing CTRL RETURN. Then I hit the return key five times and write the chapter number/title. I then hit the RETURN key twice more and I’m ready to start writing my chapter.
5. Another thing worth doing is to select ‘Heading 2’ for chapter headings. What this does is create a sort of bookmark in the Navigation panel. So when you’ve got a book of 80,000 words you can have the Navigation panel up on the left side of the screen and quickly move between the chapters.
6. In the header, write your last name and a couple of words from the title. The ‘Book Manuscript’ template places page numbers in the correct order, so you shouldn’t have to do anything with regard to them.
7. It’s worth checking how the actual formatting looks by selecting the hide/show hidden formatting key. This will show up stray paragraphs or extra spaces you weren’t intending to be there. Worth going through your manuscript to clean up those little errors.
8. When you want to create a break within a chapter press RETURN twice then use the # symbol centred. Then hit RETURN twice again and start the next section of the chapter. This tells the agent/publisher that there is definitely a break and not just a formatting error.
9. Always use underlining in place of italics. This will be replaced when you come to publishing but for manuscript purposes, again, underlining is clearer to the agent/publisher than italics.
10. At the end, write THE END. One hopes it would be obvious but doesn’t hurt to make sure it’s clear.
Hope some of that helps. Again, it’s true that content is king when it comes to your writing. But I spent a lot of time researching and testing what would look professional and, more importantly, what agents/publishers wanted to see. It seems they don’t really mind too much, as long as it’s clearly and professionally presented. But by following these tips, it’s one less thing you have to worry about.
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