RHW March26: Word for Writers

Whichever word processing software you use, there is no real right or wrong way to do it – the most important thing is to write, after all – but if you set your Word document up to create a manuscript that is as simple as possible, then you’ll be saving yourself time later.
Please note: this is how I do it. If you are submitting your manuscript to an agent or publisher, you must follow the guidelines they specify.

Keep your font simple

To write and edit, I use Times New Roman, font size 12, 1.5 spaced (to save paper when you print it out). This is NOT the font used in the final book files. For the main body of text in paperback books, we use fonts like Garamond or Helvetica.

Only use blank lines for a scene break or for effect

If you do want to double space your work, use a paragraph style – don’t use line breaks (pressing return). And don’t press return at the end of a line – Word will wrap the text onto the next line.
A line break is sufficient for a scene break, or if you want to use a character, just use a single asterisk or single bullet point character.

Use a page break for a new chapter

Don’t use line breaks to get to the next page as this will change when you edit your work. Use insert page break.

Use style sheets to set up your paragraphs

Don’t use tabs to indent paragraphs and don't use loads of spaces to move text into the centre of the page – set up styles within the toolbox.
Edit the normal style and create new styles for indent, centre, centre bold and italics.
I use a style sheet with a first line indent of 0.5cm.

Check your invisibles (non-printing characters)

When you click on the Pilcrow symbol to show non-printing characters, your document fills with blue symbols to let you see if you have anything weird. You don’t want any strange characters messing up your document as these may affect later typesetting or eBook production.

Don’t use double spaces after a full stop

This is an old business typing habit and doesn’t work well in published text. If you have double spaces after a full stop, you’ll end up with weird gaps in your book. A single space is enough.

Use the dictionary to add strange spellings of names and places

Don’t rely on the spell checker but it is useful to spot typos in your work when you get that red underlining squiggle. But if you have particular character and place names that Word doesn’t recognise, add them to the dictionary and then if you do mistype it on occasion, the red squiggle will show up the mistake.

Use Search and Find & Replace

This is useful to check the consistency in your work for words that you may have hyphenated or not, given capitals or not, or chosen one spelling over another.

Submitting a Flash!Mob story

If you're submitting a flash fiction story to Harvey's Flash!Mob, please add the title of the story at the top with a byline that is your preferred author name or pen name.

My Story by A.A. Writer

And if you could name the Word document with your author name followed by the story title, that would fab!

AAWriter My Story.docx

In general...

If you use Word for your short stories, using this document naming system will also help keep them organised.

If you're writing a full length novel, I'd strongly advise using a single Word document so you can search the whole book for inconsistencies in one go and also keep track of your total word count as you write.

Happy writing xx

The Stokesley branch of the Robinson House Writers meets once a month, on the first Thursday, 12pm to 1pm, in a meeting room above the Globe Community Library in Stokesley. Please email me if you'd like more details or if you'd like more information about anything covered in this topic.