In Today’s Journal
* The True Pulp Kickstarter Goes Live!
* Notes on Manuscript Format
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The True Pulp Kickstarter Goes Live!
The True Pulp Kickstarter will go live this morning at around 9 a.m. EST.
Everyone please stop by and check it out. Backers get early access plus exclusive covers and content.
Notes on Manuscript Format
I didn’t provide a recommended format for manuscript submissions before the Echoes of Hemingway short story contest. Here are a few guidelines.
Note: If you’re submitting to a specific venue, always check for that venue’s specific formatting guidelines. If they don’t offer any, these will serve you well.
Contact Info
It’s always a good idea to include your name, physical mailing address, and email address in the top right (or left) corner of the first page of the manuscript. Make it easy for the editor to contact you. And pay you.
Also, there is no reason to begin the first page of the manuscript 1/3 or 1/2 way down the page. That’s a throwback to the days when the editor needed space to write comments or notes to the typesetter. (Also see “Line Spacing: 1.5” below.)
Copyright Notification
No need to indicate copyright information on your submission. Doing so marks you as a beginner. Think about it. The editor knows the work is copyrighted in your name.
The Title
Always begin the story with the title on the first page of the manuscript. Preferably a little larger than the font size in the body of the submission.
I’ll be happy to send anyone my novel and short story templates. You only have to email me (harveystanbrough@gmail.com) and let me know you’d like to have one or the other or both.
Author Name
Include the desired author name for publication under the title of the work, whether that’s your name or your pseudonym.
Spell Check
Run the automatic spell checker and correct what you agree should be corrected.
Tabs Are Taboo
Please don’t use the Tab key to indent the first line of your paragraphs. Use the Paragraph Formatting tool instead. More on this below in “Paragraph Spacing and First Line Indents.”
Use Find & Replace
The old two spaces after a period stuff is a throwback to typewriters and monospaced fonts.
I especially recommend using the Find & Replace tool to search for two spaces and replace them with one space. It only takes a single click of the mouse. (Put ” ” in the Find What box and ” ” in the Replace With box. Without the quotation marks.) Then click Replace All.
It’s also a good idea to search for ^p (Paragraph + space) and replace that with ^p (Paragraph). (Put “^p ” in the Find What box and “^p” in the Replace With box. Again, without the quotation marks.) Then click Replace All.
Click the following link for an entire free series of posts on MS Word for Writershttps://harveystanbrough.com/microsoft-word-for-writers/.
Line Spacing: 1.5
Set your line spacing to 1.5. Single-spaced lines are too tight to read comfortably.
Double spaced lines (very old mss format) are so far apart so editors of paper submissions could/can add editorial comments and typesetting instructions in the spaces between the lines.
There’s no need for double-spaced lines with modern word-processing programs and the Track Changes feature in Word. And 1.5 spaced lines are “airy” enough that they’re easy to read.
Use a Serif Font
Use a font with serifs (the little tics at the tops and bottoms of the letters) instead of a non-serif font. The serifs aid the movement of the eyes from letter to letter and word to word and ease the reading.
I personally recommend Georgia, but any serif font face will do.
Under no circumstances use a mono-spaced font face, serif or otherwise, in which the letter “i” takes up as much space as the letter “m.” Even typewriters eventually got past that silliness.
I also recommend using the same font face from the title all the way through to The End. Keep it simple.
Paragraph Spacing and First Line Indents
In fiction, spacing before or after paragraphs should be set to zero. The first line of paragraphs should be indented.
I recommend a first-line indent of 0.15″. That’s far enough to indicate a new paragraph has started, but it isn’t so far as to disrupt the reading. It also doesn’t insert enough white space to make it a convenient place to stop reading.
The old .5″ first-line indent is again a throwback to paper manuscripts that are double-spaced.
Scene Breaks
Don’t leave only a blank line to indicate a scene break or passage of time.
If you only leave a blank line—especially if the reason for the break isn’t flashing-neon-light glaringly obvious—the editor can’t tell whether you left the blank line intentionally or just accidentally hit the Enter key twice.
So use something. I recommend using a single, centered asterisk (in the same style, font face and size as the rest of the body text).
Hit the Enter Key More Often
Start a new paragraph each time a different character begins speaking or each time a “camera angle” changes in the scene.
However, if the same character continues talking, don’t begin a new paragraph unless the character changes the topic and the paragraph is getting too long.
What’s too long for a paragraph?
The End
Indicate the end of the story with “The End” or ### or ***. Something.
If the last line of the story has nothing after it, it looks as if you just stopped writing and maybe there was more to come. The editor has no way of knowing.
You Care. The Editor Doesn’t.
The editor has a lot of submissions from which to choose. Always help him or her want to accept your submission for a contest or publication.
Always make reading your story (or novel) easy on the editor or reader. After all, it’s always more important to you that reading your story is a pleasant experience.
Hope this helps. If I left out anything or if you have any questions, feel free to email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
This post is also available as a free PDF download at the Journal website. Bottom left of the first column.
Of Interest
Why to Add Details to Your Writing Have your sound turned on. This is excellent.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1040
Writing of Blackwell Ops 45: Sam Granger | Ghost Trail 2
Day 1…… 2637 words. To date…… 2637
Day 2…… 3648 words. To date…… 6285
Day 3…… 3483 words. To date…… 9768
CUTS…… -4437 words. To date…… 5331
Day 4…… 3212 words. To date…… 8543
Day 5…… 2715 words. To date…… 11258
Day 6…… 2044 words. To date…… 13302
Day 7…… 2280 words. To date…… 15582
Fiction for June……………………….. 2280
Fiction for 2025………………………. 465732
Nonfiction for June……………………. 2760
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 128910
2025 consumable words…………….. 588132
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 11
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 27
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 115
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 297
Short story collections……………………. 29
Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!
If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
- On Writing Fiction
- Gifts
- Writing Resources
- Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.