[Aenigma]

What is the best way to format a novel? Margin sizes, text, lines spacing.



Right now I'm using 1" margins all around, double spaced, and Courier New, 12 point text which is what is standard for my word processor, is this acceptable or is there something better?

[Mark]

Are you thinking about submitting it to a publisher or agent yet? If not, I would just format it however you want to.



I personally end up switching my fonts around to whatever suits my mood. I usually use between 1.4 and 2.0 line spacing. On the screen I make it a size that seems comfortable to read, and when I print it (just to read it through and do some self-editing) I usually use 11-point text.



I also sometimes print my drafts "sideways" (8.5 inches tall and 11 inches wide), with two columns of text, so it resembles a printed book.



But if you're printing a copy for a friend to read over, you might want to see if they have any prefrence. And if you're submitting something for publication, I would follow the publisher's guidelines. There is also a good article on formatting a manuscript for submission here: http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/ma...ormatting.html

[YMarrsWhenTheSaxManPlays]

Very good advice there! I hadn't thought of printing sideways (too technical for me LOL) I find that I'm using 1.5 line spacing to write and double line spacing when I'm sending off submissions as most publishers and editors prefer this. Times New Roman seems to be the default, as most seem to work with boring slow Windows, which means that us sensible people with Macs have to change in order to be compatible. I say sensible because we can just plug and play with our new printer/scanners; we don't experience 'crashes', we don't suddenly lose things and it's rare that a program ever exits on us. I wish I'd swapped over years ago!

Hope this helps (?)

[paperflames]

Am I the only single-spacer here? It seems most comfortable to look at on a screen (unless I have long paragraphs). I often print things out for editing and revision. Apparently my formatting's not very read friendly. I like tiny margins (when you print them out it saves paper and it looks more professional to me for some reason) and relatively small font. However, when I submit things I double-space and use more traditional fonts and sizes.

[Mark]

I do single spacing for viewing on the screen (well, more often 1.2 spacing) when I feel like it. I used to do it more. But when I'm printing a copy to edit, it's hard to write between the lines unless it's at least 1.5.

[Neca]

Am I the only who likes to use sans-serif fonts, at least while I'm writing it? I guess it's not very bookish, but the majority of what I see on the screen is Verdana or Arial. And most of the time I don't bother changing it just to print it.

[Melia]

I used sans-serif fonts a ton back when I wrote fanfic, heh. Not recently though.