In Today’s Journal
* Nope. No New Series.
* I Published a Manuscript Formatting Guideline
* Taking a Brief Hiatus
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Nope. No New Series.
I changed my mind. I’m not gonna read through and revamp the whole Microsoft Word for Writers series. I already know all that stuff and reading it again bores me. If you want it, go here and read it.
I recommend you read the whole thing, every post—it’s under 6800 words—because in some cases the posts overlap and build on each other. If you cherry pick among the posts, chances are good you’ll miss something you didn’t realize you needed.
Most of the posts are fine as-is. In fact, all of them are fine as-is. They’re only missing a few pieces of info you probably could use.
For example, the Ruler.
If you have the Ruler turned on in Word you’ll see a horizontal ruler across the top of the workspace. (If you don’t have the Ruler turned on, in your Word menu, go to View and click Ruler.)
Toward the left end of the ruler, you’ll see a tiny down-facing triangle just above a tiny up-facing triangle, and both of those are just above a tiny rectangle.
If you’re allergic to the Paragraph Formatting Tool you can set your first line indent by sliding that top (down-facing) triangle to the right a little.
You only have to set that once. When you hit the return (Enter) key at the end of each paragraph, the first line of the next paragraph will automatically indent the same as the first.
All the other text in each paragraph in the entire new document will align with the up arrow. It, in conjunction with the small rectangle below it, marks the left margin.
If you’ve already written a document and used the Tab key to indent the first line of each paragraph, I recommend you do this:
- Open the Find & Replace dialogue. (This is in your Home tab.) When that dialogue box opens,
- put the cursor of your mouse in the Find What box. Be sure the Replace With box is empty, then
- Click the More button in the bottom left corner of the box.
- At the bottom of the now-expanded dialogue box click Special.
- From the drop-down menu, click Tab Character. A tab character will appear in your Find What box.
- Now click Replace All. All of the tabs will disappear.
- To indent the first line of your paragraphs all at one time, use the Paragraph Formatting Tool (see below).
If you’re writing a new document or if you’ve already written one and did NOT use the Tab key to indent the first line of the paragraphs, do what I did below in “I Published a Manuscript Formatting Guideline.”
Re the Paragraph Formatting Tool, it was difficult for me to believe how many writers who submitted to the contest either didn’t know how to use that tool or just blew it off. So….
I Published a Manuscript Formatting Guideline
so everyone who entered the contest could make a professional presentation.
A few did. Most did not. Hence this post.
In the first story I opened yesterday, I highlighted everything below the title (so the entire body of the story). Then I opened the paragraph formatting tool.
When that dialogue box opened, I moved from top to bottom in sequence, as follows:
Alignment was already set to Left, so I left that alone. If yours is set to Centered, Right, or Justified (makes both vertical sides of the document straight but causes lines of white space through the text), set your alignment to Left. Goes to reader comfort.
Under Indentations, I set “Left” and “Right” to 0″. To the right under Special, I selected First Line from the drop-down menu. Under “By:” it popped up as the Microsoft default of 0.5″. I inserted a numeral 1 between the dot and the 5 to make the first line indent “0.15” (easier to read and minimal interruption for the reader).
Next, under Spacing, I set both “Before” and “After” (paragraphs) to “0 pt”. Then under Line Spacing to the right, I selected “1.5 lines” from the drop-down menu.
Although some places still require double-spaced lines, that’s an archaic throwback to when an editor at a magazine or book publisher would use the extra space to make editing and typesetting notes. In the electronic documents of the 21st century it’s a ridiculous waste of space and it makes the manuscript difficult to read.
Likewise single spacing is too tight. Use 1.5 on your line spacing.
Then, because I like a clean looking, continuous document, I clicked the menu tab that reads Line and Page Breaks at the top of the dialogue box.
In that dialogue box, I double clicked all the little boxes to uncheck them, then went to the bottom and click Okay. Just like that, the whole document was transformed into something I could actually read without my eyes crusting over or falling out.
That whole operation took a matter of maybe 30 seconds. It’s just that easy.
What’s difficult and time consuming and annoying is having to do that for several stories in a row. Having to do that sort’a puts me out of the mood to read for pleasure. Presentation is part of the story submission process.
If I sponsor anymore contests in the future, I’ll probably go pro on you and reject any manuscripts that are not formatted per the guidelines I took the time to write. (grin)
Back to paragraph formatting for a moment:
I don’t mind if you set the first line indent to anything from 0.5″ or smaller, as long as they’re all the same.
I personally use 0.015 because that’s enough to indicate subliminally to the reader that a new paragraph has started without using so much white space and creating an unnecessary diversion. Setting the first line indent to 0.025 isn’t bad either. Anything larger is a little disruptive.
If you look at most fiction books (stories, novels, etc.) you’ll rarely if ever find one with a half-inch first line indent on the body paragraphs.
I also offer (free) a short story template and a novel template with all that stuff already pre-set. All you have to do is highlight the title (for example) and type in your own title. Highlight some of the body text and type in your own, etc.
If you’d like one or both templates, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Here’s the rationale for all of this:
With literally everything I put on the page as a fiction writer, I’m trying to make it easier for the reader to read my story. Every word, every mark of punctuation, and every first line indent is geared toward that one goal.
With my manuscript formatting guidelines, I’m trying to pass along that discipline to you. A neat, clean manuscript won’t make you a better storyteller, but it will make your presentation better and make you a more reader-friendly storyteller.
Taking a Brief Hiatus
I have too much to do around the old homestead here, so after I finish reading contest entries today (I started yesterday), I’m gonna take whatever time I need to finish my new gate/fence project and maybe a few other things.
I’ll be back when I’m finished or next Monday (with the Bradbury Challenge results), whichever comes first.
Of course, I’ll still check email from time to time, so any questions, feel free.
Talk with you again then.
Of Interest
Hot Sweat vs. Cold Sweat—What’s the Difference? Goes to characterization. The more you learn, the more real your characters will be.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1260
Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty
Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Fiction for August..………………….. XXXX
Fiction for 2025………………………. 526647
Nonfiction for August………………… 3820
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 172220
2025 consumable words…………….. 691253
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
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.