Formating question

[pathele]

When you are writing your rough draft, do you use something like MS Word? and if so, do you have a favorite way of formatting the draft? (single space vs double space, 12pt vs 10pt vs 14pt, etc)

I generally use 12pt font, with double space between paragraphs, but single space otherwise. I know that eventually I will need to go back an format for submission, but right now, it's what's comfortable for me.

What do you guys do?

-paul

[Josh]

First draft. MS Word. 12 pt. Times New Roman. Single spaced. 1" margins all around.

When I'm done with a chapter or scene, I double-space it. This gives the illusion of doubling my productivity and gives me warm fuzzy feelings to see the page count go up. Aside from that, I base my formatting on where I'm submitting the work to after it's ready.

www.jrvogt.com

[Dom]

I use a MS Word I've tweaked to turn off autocorrect, grammer check, automatic tabbing at the start of a paragraph, and tweaked to put some extra buttons on the top bar such as "word count" and "thesaurus".  I've also changed the normal.dot template so it defaults to 12 pt Arial font (although sometimes I mistakenly hit some weird key combo and it goes back to Times New Roman), and I type single spaced. I also do a centered * * * * betwen scenes rather then a centered # - this dates from the days when I wrote longhand in a notebook, I used to put four stars between scenes.

Really, the only thought I give to the final formatting is making sure my italics are underlined, just because I'm not aware of a way in Word to make italic words underlined all in one go, and it would suck to eyeball it line by line when formatting it, trying to spot all the italics and make them underlined.

Edit: Regarding habits, just in case some folks don't know yet...I use these shortcuts while typing:

shift + arrow keys => highlight a word so I can type over it, or underline it, or manipulate it
ctrl + I => italics
ctrl + B => bold
ctrl + U => underline
ctrl + home key => move cursor to the very start of the document
ctrl + end key => move cursor to the very end of the document
home key => move cursor to the start of the line
end key => move cursor to the end of the line
ctrl + c => copy highlighted text
ctrl + x => cut highlighted text
ctrl + v => paste text where the cursor currently is.
ctrl + s => save document

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

There are only a few non-governmental organisations in the world with budgets of a size to pay me enough to use MS Word for writing fiction, and let's face it, they're not going to.

I'm currently using emacs, which suffices, but I hold to the belief that the One True Word-Processor where fiction is concerned was Protext for DOS.

[pathele]

I also do a centered * * * * between scenes rather then a centered # -

Does everyone use a seperator (**** or ####) between scenes?
I usually just skip an extra line and go to the next scene.

-paul

[Dom]

I also do a centered * * * * between scenes rather then a centered # -

Does everyone use a seperator (**** or ####) between scenes?
I usually just skip an extra line and go to the next scene.

-paul

I think when you submit a work, the standard for seperating scenes is this:

#

No more, no less.  That way the publisher knows it's actually a scene seperation, and not some sort of typo.

There are only a few non-governmental organisations in the world with budgets of a size to pay me enough to use MS Word for writing fiction, and let's face it, they're not going to.

I'm currently using emacs, which suffices, but I hold to the belief that the One True Word-Processor where fiction is concerend was Protext for DOS.

Is Protext what you started writing with, Neurovore?  I've noticed writers seem to be a pretty stubborn bunch; some of the golden age writers stuck to typewriters until the very end, and in the world of computer programs, I've found writers tend to stick with the first one they really learned how to use well!  I use MS Word because it's better then Microsoft Works, and it's the first real word processing program I had access to.  Before this, I used to write longhand in a notebook, and anything is better then that!

[Kali]

When I write, it's Times New Roman 12pt, single spaced, double space between paragraphs.  I usually use some repeated character for a major scene separator, something that's not exactly a chapter break but not just a ten minute eyeblink either.  If I'm feeling fancy, I'll use something that's attractive to my eye.  Usually something like ~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I do have to reformat for submitting, into double spacing with tab-indented paragraphs.  And I change scene separators into the centered, lone #    I read it in a Vonda McIntyre thing on submitting, and that's what I've used.  All three times.

I used to write in Arial 11pt.  Whenever I'm re-reading old stuff and I encounter that, I have to change it.  It looks awful to me now.

[blgarver]

Kristen ITC, 14 pt, 1.5 spaces...

No, not really.  I use 12 pt Times New Roman, single spaced, double spaced between scenes.  I've only submitted over the internet so I haven't had to mess with formatting for a hard copy submission.  However, I'm almost finished with my first book so I'll be formatting that for hard copy.

I keep in mind that generally, 5 pages of the way I type is about 10 book pages, so I try to stick to that as a framework for my chapters, but I don't go back and double space or change to Courier font.  I won't do that until the 3rd draft or so, when it's closer to submission quality.