I posted the following questions in the Basic Writing forum, but I hope this is not seen as a redundant double-post, as this seems to be the proper forum for such questions. In the following I am specifically asking about standard manuscript formatting for a novel--for submission to agents. On the BW forum, some responses told me to simply do as I please, which can't be right, given that all agents I've come across explicitly request submissions in standard manuscript form. I'm just not entirely clear on certains aspects of that form....
1) On page 11 of William Shunn's sample novel format webpage (seen here: http://www.shunn.net/format/novel.html), he presents a sample "Part" (as in Part I, Part II, etc.) manuscript page. Is this how it's properly done?
2) Second: Does the chapter count begin anew at each new part? In other words, should the first chapter of "Part II" be Chapter 1? Or should it carry over from Part I and therefore be enumerated as, say, Chapter 23?
3) Is "Part" the standard term today? For instance, what about "Section"? Is there a consensus or preference among agents?
4) Neither my novel's parts nor chapters have names...I assume to adjust my manuscript accordingly I would simply use Shunn's format but remove the names and attendant colon (after "Part I") and adjust the spacing?
Any advice (or links to other webpages with sample format pages) would be appreciated. Thank you.
1) On page 11 of William Shunn's sample novel format webpage (seen here: http://www.shunn.net/format/novel.html), he presents a sample "Part" (as in Part I, Part II, etc.) manuscript page. Is this how it's properly done?
2) Second: Does the chapter count begin anew at each new part? In other words, should the first chapter of "Part II" be Chapter 1? Or should it carry over from Part I and therefore be enumerated as, say, Chapter 23?
3) Is "Part" the standard term today? For instance, what about "Section"? Is there a consensus or preference among agents?
4) Neither my novel's parts nor chapters have names...I assume to adjust my manuscript accordingly I would simply use Shunn's format but remove the names and attendant colon (after "Part I") and adjust the spacing?
Any advice (or links to other webpages with sample format pages) would be appreciated. Thank you.
