How To: Format Your Manuscript

What is the first thing an editor sees when he or she opens your document? It’s not your witty prose, nor your masterful vocabulary. It isn’t your subtle development of character depth, or even the way you carefully and deliciously build tension to its final climax. The first thing an editor sees is your manuscript formatting. You may think, “Well of course, tell me something I don’t already know!” Yet all too often editors get manuscripts from writers who have put absolutely no thought into their formatting, and this tells the editor that the author doesn’t care enough about being published to properly format their manuscript. Is that you? You couldn’t care less about being published, then? I didn’t think so.

Make a Template

What I do is have a template on the desktop of my computer, and when I start a new story I simply open this document and begin. It’s got everything set up, including my name and address, a place for the word count to be inserted, and even the page numbers in the lower right corner with my last name and a placeholder title. I just plug the information in and I’m ready to go. It saves me time and frees my mind up to get started with writing. It also eliminates that old “blank page” thing that some writers complain about. You know, the cursor blinking at you from the first line of a field of pure, blank, white, daring you to begin, taunting you, laughing at you…but I digress.

Use Standard Formatting

If you want to be a professional, published writer, you simply have to do whatever you can to present yourself as such. This includes paying close attention to details such as properly formatting your manuscript. Now, if you are going to submit to a publication, you absolutely must find out what their specific guidelines are and modify your manuscript to match. If it says Times Roman, use Times Roman even if you read on some blog that Courier is usually acceptable as well. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to “design” your manuscript by using fancy fonts and typefaces. Also pay attention to file types. Modern versions of Microsoft Word save files with a .docx extension, but many publications require you to submit a .doc file type. Failing to use the correct file extension may mean that the editor won’t even be able to open your file, and that will automatically disqualify you. Again, pay attention to the details of each publication’s submission requirements.

The following is a list of standard formatting elements to help you build your own template.

Use Times New Roman or Courier 12 point font.
Set your document to double-spaced with a 1” margin on all sides. Do not include any additionally space after paragraphs unless you are indicating a break in time or location for the purpose of your story. See below for a discussion of double-spacing.
Start all paragraphs with a single Tab key indent.
Put only 1 blank space after periods.
In the upper left corner, put your name, address, telephone number, and email address.
In the upper right corner, put the word count of your document.
In the bottom right corner, put the page number with your last name and the title (if brief) or an appropriate abbreviation of the title (if long). For example, the bottom right corner of my short story “The Unsaid” looks like this: Rix / The Unsaid / 1
On the next line after your name and address info, center the title of your piece.
If you are mailing your submission via the post office, print it on only one side of the page, and use regular white paper. Do not use colored paper.

One thing that drives me a little nuts about the latest version of Word is that it ships in the box with presets that don’t make sense. For example, it is present with a blank line following every paragraph. I’m not sure if this is standard in the business world, but in writing and academia you simply never have that extra line in your document. Regardless, you can set your line spacing up in Word 2010 by going to “paragraph” under the “home” tab, and clicking that little down arrow in the bottom right corner. This opens up a window where you can define your line spacing. Set the spacing to “double” in the dropdown, and the “after” value to 0. It presents to “10” and that’s what causes the extra line after each paragraph. In older versions of Word, I believe you go to “format” then “paragraph” to get the pop up window. Double spacing is extremely important. It makes your piece easy to read, and leaves enough space for an editor to make notes if need be. I recently discovered that there’s a way to change Word’s presets and I was successfully able to do so after Googling the topic. Still, when I have to use a computer at school, every edition of Word starts up with these same annoying presets, so knowing how to manually adjust them is very important, as is always making sure they are set the way you need them to be set when starting any new piece. It should be a habit that you ensure your document is set up properly, so that your mind is free to focus on the art of writing.

Use Page Numbers

To set up your page number in Word, go to “insert” then “page number” and choose the one with the number in the bottom right of the page. You can then click on it at the bottom of your page and insert your last name and title. Numbering your pages is extremely important, as is inserting your last name and story title. Imagine an editor has a printed copy of your story on their desk with several others, none of which has the author’s name or title next to the page numbers. A gust of wind comes in through the open window, and all the pages go flying. The editor is now unable to reorganize those pages and your chances of publication, dare I say it, go out the window. Yes, apparently I do dare. Make sure you are the smarty pants that prepared for just that situation, and you will have one less reason to end up in the slush pile. By the way, in Word 2010 you can just hit the Escape key to get out of editing a header or footer.

Count Your Words

You can find the word count of your story using Word’s word count feature. Highlight the body of your story, not including your title and name/address. For Word 2010, the count is then displayed at the bottom left of your screen. For older versions, it’s under one of your action bar items, perhaps “view” or “file” but I’m not sure.

Edit, Edit, Edit

Aside from these standard visual elements, correct spelling and punctuation should be absolutely standard for anything you intend to see published. The details of punctuation, especially dialog punctuation, are all too often ignored or misunderstood, and it makes a piece look unprofessional. It also distracts the editor from enjoying your story if he or she is busy noticing how often you incorrectly punctuate. Likewise, spelling errors can be very distracting to an editor. A story should be rigorously reviewed for spelling and punctuation errors. Review your story, then have someone else take a look at it. Read it out loud to help you catch errors. Then review it again. Right before you hit the submit button, review it one more time.

Keep it Simple, Polished, and Professional

I am clearly biased toward using Microsoft Word, and I apologize if you prefer a different program. However, the standards are the same regardless if you use Word, a Mac program, or a typewriter (God love ya). When you submit a manuscript to a publication, its purpose is for the editor to be able read and assess your story, not your formatting or design skills. Don’t give a busy editor an excuse to reject your work before they’ve even read it. Keep it simple, polished, and professional, and always give the publication’s posted submission requirements top priority when deciding how to format your submission.

Downloadable manuscript checklist: pdf