Formatting Fiction

When submitting fiction you should double space work. Start the first paragraph and any new paragraph after a section break, “full out” i.e. right up to the margin. Just like this one has been done. Notice also that we generally use “ragged right”. Rumour has it that this is to enable hard-pressed London-based editors to keep their place when they read in bed or on the Tube. Note, though, that American texts do not start documents and new paragraphs after section breaks “full out”. They indent every paragraph.

Second and subsequent paragraphs are indented. You do not need to double double-space. For example there is only a single space between this paragraph and the one before.  This and what is described above are not Word defaults but can easily be set up in Word. Use the Paragraph function.

Note also that the industry prefers standard fonts. The most widely accepted are Times New Roman 12, Arial 10, Calibri 11 and Courier New 12. This is Times New Roman 12. However the header is in Courier New 12.    

             It is helpful to include your title and your name (for submissions to publication) on each page. It is also useful to include a page number and an indication of the number of pages. Note how the latter has been done on this document.  Again, this is very easy to set up, using the Header and Footer functions in Word.

This is a standard way to submit for publication and also useful for submitting to your writers’ group. However, publishers ask for all sorts of weird and wonderful things so do exactly what they say.

Formatting  Fiction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU14VdN7OlM

Adding header, footer and page number https://youtu.be/ffQ1cGFl0EI  

Creating Ragged Right https://youtu.be/GyyatkfPeiw

Choosing font type and size https://youtu.be/TvaZk15KAIg