A reader writes to ask: I am submitting a short story collection, but the publisher requests just the first 50 pages. How do I handle this in terms of what I would write for word count? Do I include the number of words in first 50 pages? The entire manuscript?
A reader writes to ask: My question is in regards to formatting a prologue. My story is a fantasy/sci-fi tale that has two separate events that occur to two separate groups that lay the foundation for the actual "chapter 1" of my tale. In my manuscript, I
A reader writes to ask: I've been writing in Microsoft Works, which I believe is similar but not identical to Word. When I type an ellipse by typing three periods in succession, the program automatically compresses them together, rendering the ellipse almost illegible. Instead, I've been
A reader writes to ask: Please-does anyone out there know how to end a manuscript for a short story or novel? Do you skip a line and write -END- (margin left) or THE END (Centered) or... I've seen both methods you mention, and in addition I know writers
A reader writes to ask: I have a children's fiction novel. Once the second chapter starts, do I type the chapter at the top of the next page or 1/3 of the way down, like mid-way the page? Start the second chapter (and every subsequent chapter) on
A reader writes to ask: I came upon your blog when asking a question about short story indentation at ask.com. I don't know if you'll ever read this, but if you do and can spare some time, I'd appreciate a response. I was
A reader writes to ask: I read somewhere that if you format properly you should get 25 lines per page, but I consistantly get 24. So when I use Word to give me a word count on 141 pages, I get 28k, but when I do it the way I
A reader writes to ask: I scoured your blog as well as the Internet, and am still having problems with underlining for italics. I am definitely using underlining but am fuzzy on the following: 1. Do I use "underline words only" like this or do I include the
A reader writes to ask: At the recent meeting of our local writers group we got involved in a discussion about formatting. Several of us were having problems with the header/footer and page numbering aspect of our word processing program. My problem was setting the page for "different
A reader writes to ask: At the end of your podcasts, you include the important fact that your podcasts have a Creative Commons license on them, and I'd like to ask how I can be sure my own work has that protection. I've uploaded some of
In followup to the post Proper novella format, a reader writes to ask: What do you do if you are using a novella as part of a short story collection? If you're including a novella in a collection, then format it essentially like you would a short story.
A reader writes to ask: How should I differentiate the character's thoughts from the rest of the narrative? Some people have suggested I put them in quotation marks, but I find that when I read novels in which the character's thoughts are in quotation marks, I
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