Formatting questions

DVGuru · Apr 30, 2006

I read through the sticky on top of the board, but still have some questions.

1. How should a dash appear in a manuscript? In Word, if I type "--" it turns into a dash. Is that acceptable, or should I tell Word to leave it alone? What is the proper way of letting a publisher know I want a dash rather than a hyphen?

2. Same as above, only with an ellipsis. Word condenses the ellipsis, making it pretty tiny, especially when using Courier New. Should I stop Word from changing it?

3. Line breaks. I know to use # to indicate one, but do I leave a blank line before and after it?

I'm writing my first novel and want to format it correctly from the beginning.

Berry · Apr 30, 2006

First of all, remember that if you write a terrific novel, minor formatting glitches like real em-dashes instead of "--" and whether you have blank lines around your scene breaks aren't going to make anyone reject it. And if your novel isn't quite so terrific, perfect formatting isn't going to make anyone reject it. The idea is to get close enough to standard format that the format isn't an issue. If the first page screams "AMATEUR" to the editor, that's bad.

So don't obsess about your formatting, even though it's the one objective thing you can control about the whole writing process. Get it set up, and then forget about it and just write your novel.

Specifically, yes, make Word stop replacing "--" with an em-dash, make it stop contracting your ellipses and put blank lines around your scene breaks. Also turn off "smartquotes" and anything else that Word is "helpfully" doing for you. That's all great for brochures and business letters and user manuals, but not for fiction writing.

(I don't have Word on this computer, so I can't tell you how to do it, but instructions abound around here and elsewhere on the Net.)

jchines · Apr 30, 2006

Tools --> Options --> AutoCorrect Options

Click the "AutoFormat as you Type" tab, and you can turn off all of that obnoxious junk there.

DVGuru · Apr 30, 2006

Thanks. I personally like it better without Word formatting for me.

Jamesaritchie · Apr 30, 2006

dashes

I don't think it does any harm at all to allow Word to auto-format dashes and ellipses for you, but it does no harm to not to, either.

I'm really with Berry. Proper manuscript format is easier if you turn off everything in Word that's trying to help you. Turn off auto-format, turn off smart quotes, etc.

The one place where I find Word to be immensely helpful is with auto-correct, but only if you take control of it.

When writing, I have a nasty habit of typing "teh" when I mean "the." Word automatically corrects this for me.

And when typing contractions such as "don't," can't: etc., I have a nasty habit of hitting the semi-colon key, rather than the apostrophe key. Word also automtatically corrects this mistake because I set it to do so.

Formatting questions

DVGuru

Plays too many video games

Berry

jchines

Got the hang of it, here

DVGuru

Plays too many video games

Jamesaritchie