Formatting, formatting

pbw

Formatting my manuscript is a complete nightmare. It's so hard to find the right instructions, given that from everything I've read so far, a rejection can be triggered by one semi-colon out of place in a ninety thousand word m/s. My angst is current fuelled by this problem. How should the date/time line be formatted at the top of a section? This is an opening sentence from a chapter in my WIP:

Tuesday 4th May 2032 11.25 p.m
Rob is pacing up and down my compact hotel room. I sit small and miserable on the bed.

Should I have another line space between the date/time line and the opening sentence? Should the date/time line be in italics? Are the date and time formatted correctly?

Any advice gratefully received.

Phots Moll

Don't panic!

Formatting is there to make the work easy to read and understand and to help it look attractive on the page. If it does that, you're OK. I don't believe an otherwise great book will be rejected for poor formatting - but good formatting will make your work easier to read, so an agent/publisher is going to be more inclined to look at it.

In your example, it's clear what your date and time represent, so they're OK as they are. You could use italics. That will draw more attention to them - which might be what you want, or you might not.

White space is good, so I would be inclined to leave a sspace before the next line. Try it - does it look good, or rather bitty?

Whatever you do, be consistent.

pbw

Thanks a mill Phot's Moll. I had the italics and the extra line space but I have just edited them both out. I preferred the 'look' as it was before so I shall now put them both back.

flyingtart

Good advice from PM. Don't sweat it as long as it's clear and consistent. Every publisher has their own in-house style for these things so you can't conform to every convention.

cath

my writing teacher always says "white space" is good and more attractive to the reader. Best of luck...sure wish my manuscript was finished-not even half way there.

casey

In my novel I put the timeline on each chapter i.e. October 1997, Christmas 1997, etc. This was mainly for my own use to keep track of time passing. When I formatted the novel to send out I've removed the timeline as I've not seen this on many novels, unless the time is essential to the plot. Did I do wrong?

dorothyd

timelines only become part of the story when they are part of the story, Casey. As in, the thriller I just read, each chapter or section started
fifteen minutes on.
That night.
and so on. It built the tension but isn't necessary for every book.

boredrobots

If it's not even halfway there, think of all the attractive white space you have! :D

It won't be long before someone publishes an empty book as 'art', unless they've already done it...

dorothyd

I think they have, it was a joke, something about husbands learning lessons, memory has gone but yes, empty pages.

pbw

[quote=dorothyd]timelines only become part of the story when they are part of the story,[/quote]
exactly that - I have some clustered action sequences where several chapters happen over the course of the day and I have some other sections where different protagonists are running parallel sets of actions which end in a collision. For those my timelines are quite specific and then there are some chapters which cover longer periods of time and it's only necessary to state the year, or nothing at all.
[quote=casey] Did I do wrong? [/quote] So I guess it depends whether your storyline needs it stated or not, Casey.

Phots Moll

[quote=casey] Did I do wrong? [/quote] No - if you thought they weren't needed, they probably weren't. I expect there were clues in the story to show it was Christmas or whatever?

With paperbackwriter's, it sounds as though they are needed.

pbw

Does anyone know? and I am formatting in Microsoft Word 2007 here which as everyone knows is a right pain in the arse

1) when you are formatting a manuscript - fiction - for submission (double spaced, one inch margins, remove orphan/widow control, slug line top left, Times New Roman 12pt, centre chapter headings, UK no indent for first para, USA indent all paras, do not insert line break between paragraphs only before a new section, start chapter heading on first line of new page...so all that's done) BUT for a MANUSCRIPT do you insert a page break if necessary to force a chapter to begin on an odd numbered page (e.g on the right hand side of the book) - or is it not necessary to do that in a manuscript.

2) I have two parts to my fiction PART ONE and PART TWO. Do I force these onto an odd numbered page again and format an extra page break and then again to make the reverse of each PART ONE and PART TWO page blank (as you would get in a book).

I know manuscript formatting is not supposed to be exactly as it will be in book form but I have found it pretty nigh impossible to get definitive advice and examples on manuscript formatting which is acceptable as a professional submission. I am having to go by trial and error (apart from the Author! Author! blog which is brilliant but that is for the USA).

Any advice gratefully received. I'm finding the formatting learning curve a very difficult one.

Eddisbury

Yes, always insert a page break at ends of chapters - even where you don't think it's necessary, otherwise subsequent edits could run chapter endings onto other pages. And don't worry about starting chapters on odd numbered pages. Not all publishers follow that convention - and it only applies to printed pages, not ms pages.
Rob Crompton

dorothyd

not sure why you should think you need to force a chapter to start on the odd numbered page. What size is your paper, A4? what size is the book, A5? so whatever you do, it won't look the same when it is printed, will it? I feel too much emphasis is being given to formatting here, rather than the work itself. If they like it, they will take it and set it to their own book size, whatever that is. Don't try and make a manuscript look like a book. It won't work.

PS: OK I know my editor well but my work goes out no headers, no page numbers, single spacing, no worrying about size of font or which font, the book is emailed and then sent in paper format and so far I have not had one single complaint. For others, such as articles, I send by email without all the formatting. They either want it or they don't.

For those 50 rejections I mentioned on another thread, everything went out with headers (I hate footers, I use name/Davies/page number in the top right hand corner) correct cover sheet, double spaced, the whole bit. And it was rejected. So I thought, why the hell am I bothering?