ellen_datlow | A rant on proper manuscript formatting

Recent reading and editing has brought to my attention the fact that some writers have suddenly (well, since using computers and email) decided that the usual rules of mss preparation are no longer necessary.

Three examples:
1) I have received print submissions without PAGE NUMBERS (not often, but still, this should never happen).

2) I have increasingly been the recipient of manuscripts that don't underline words meant to be italicized in the story's final, printed form. The reason editors/copy editors/and whoever does the production on a mss need to see underlines is that some typefaces don't show italics very well, and even if they did--it's quicker to "see" underline than italics

3)I have been receiving mss without anything indicating space breaks. What happened to ###? I'm in the middle of reading a printout that seemed to be missing at least two pages because there were no transitions...When I checked the efile, lo and behold, the sentence breaks were in different places so I could actually see that there were supposed to be space breaks. Writers--new and pro--please please show your space breaks by putting in hash marks.

4) Paragraphing--before online publishing, paragraphing was shown by indenting margins...Guess what, folks? Most publishing (especially of books) is still print, which means that paragraphs are indented.

Rant over

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Heh. OK, I totally shouldn't comment on things until I get more sleep! Because that's what I meant too (i.e. by between "sections" I meant between scenes or times or whatever) but it didn't come out that way at all. Durr.

Good to know that you're supposed to put ### there. You know, in case I ever write something and submit it somewhere.

I've heard discussion of how many spaces there should be after each sentence and that boggled my mind. I didn't even realize it could be an issue. Apparently, some people use two spaces, most use one....the two space might be a holdover from typewriters but I can't imagine an editor would care.

Oh, that's funny - believe it or not, our office (judicial) is firm on the two-space rule. That's what I've always used, but I'm not sure why. Presumably someone taught me to do it, at one point. :) (Our office is really particular about a lot of little things since we issue decisions and stuff. This morning, for instance, a couple of us had a discussion as to whether the "goverment" in United States Government should be capitalized. Heh.)

You want to find someone who REALLY goes nuts over tiny differences in how things are done, talk to a lawyer who "bluebooks" a lot (that's our citation manual).

The two spaces is a throwback from before the use of computers. In short, it is because of proportional fonts. Proportionally spaced fonts only need one space.

Before computers, when you typed a manuscript on a typewriter, the extra space was necessary to separate the ends and beginnings of a sentence because you would be sending your manuscript with a non-proportional or mono-spaced font. The space characters never changed but computers and modern layout software can "fit" the type to whatever space available there is. It literally makes the type fit in. You don't need the extra space. It will only hinder the layout program.

What happens when you have two spaces and you are doing layout it's that you can get large, unattractive gaps which we call "rivers." Rivers are ugly and we try to adjust for them.

So as someone who does layout I hate, hate two spaces. They are unnecessary and I have to remove them anyway.

Thanks for the explanation.

Ah-hah! (Just got back from 10 days in the UK without much internet, so missed this before. Thanks for the info!

I agree that a debate one space versus two is silly, but it's hard to tell from this side of the exchange which "laws" of ms prep editors consider ridiculous and which indispensable. One more example: William Shunn decrees one space after a semi-colon but two after a colon. This supposedly makes them easier to distinguish.

Ridiculous, or not?

http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

~Tristan

I hadn't thought of it but I think I usually use two spaces after a colon and one after a semi-colon. It's just looks better to me....

A rant on proper manuscript formatting

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the great spacing debate

Re: the great spacing debate