Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
Manuscript conventions
9/10/2009 9:38:42 AM
How to prepare your manuscript for submission and
other helpful hints.
Manuscript conventions
1. Always double space, even when you’re working on a draft.
2. Put a header on every page. Your name and title (or partial title) goes on the top on the left; i.e. “Smith, Red Badge of Courage.” Page number goes on the right. Space a couple of times so it doesn’t run in with your copy. There is no page number on the first page.
3. Start one-third of the way down when you start a chapter. Your editor needs room to write. Margins should be an inch, top, bottom, left and right.
4. Use courier or new courier font. New courier is kind of hard to see, but this helps to gauge the amount of pages your novel will be when in print. The amount of double-spaced pages would be reduced about two-thirds in single-spaced print. If you have 400 double-spaced pages, we’re talking around 266 pages in print. But, since most people have word count, you may not need to do this. Just count the number of words on a page from your favorite book and multiply. Genre novels tend to be around 70,000 words. Anything else, you want to aim for at least 100,000. When you rewrite, you’ll add words and pages.
5. Use twelve-point type face.
Writer’s library
1. Buy a good unabridged dictionary, Webster’s Collegiate. Don’t trust your speller. It’s often just wrong and doesn’t know certain words.
2. Roget Thesaurus. Don’t overuse. This is lazy writing. Try to think of your own words before you resort to this. Don’t try to get cute with the word, “said.” Readers don’t notice that word, but they will notice words like “responded,” or “retorted,” and that bursts your dream bubble.
3. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations will help with titles. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is from John Donne; THE SUN ALSO RISES is from the Bible.
4. Slang dictionaries can help your characters sound distinct.
5. Encyclopedia. They’re more in-depth than the Internet and the CD-ROMs. You should be able to find a Britannica set at a garage sale. I have one I got in 1978 and I still use it.
6. A Bible. I use it for chapter headings and for religious characters.
7. Style Manual. Webster’s Standard American Style Manual is a good one. This will help you with problem words like “all right” and “awhile.” Believe me, there are lots of them and they will drive you crazy.
8. Think about joining Writer’s Digest Book Club or subscribing to Writer’s Digest magazine. See Writersdigest.com.
Work Habits
1. Go for a walk every day. Take along a tape recorder. Tell yourself when you start out that you will think about your novel and you will. Your brain is getting lots of blood so you should come up with some good stuff if you keep it up.
2. Record your dreams. This is kind of fun. You can even tell yourself what to dream.
3. Read newspapers every day. I subscribe to two and I’m always cutting out clippings.
4. Before he died, Norman Mailer did the NY Times crossword as a warm-up. Otherwise, free write. Free writing is like clustering or brainstorming. It frees the right side of your brain and gets rid of that little voice that’s always saying, “This sucks.”
5. Write every day, including Sunday. Don’t tolerate excuses. Get up early if you have to. You will lose your flow if you don’t write every day and you will regress. You will also find yourself thinking about your writing all the time if you write every day. Stephen King claims he writes every day except on his birthday and Christmas. He recently admitted he was lying; he writes every day period.
Query letters and synopses next.
Dave Schwinghammer’s published novel, SOLDIER’S GAP, is available on Amazon.com at a discount.
Post a Comment
More Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
• The Sun Collective,, books review - Tuesday, February 2, 2021
• Winter Counts, book review - Tuesday, January 19, 2021
• American Gospel, book review - Friday, December 25, 2020
• Next to Last Stand - Sunday, December 13, 2020
• Anxious People - Saturday, November 14, 2020
• We Ride Upon Sticks - Saturday, September 26, 2020
• Camino Winds - Monday, August 10, 2020
• The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories - Monday, July 20, 2020
• Valentine, book review - Tuesday, July 7, 2020
• IF IT BLEEDS - Saturday, June 13, 2020
• Masked Prey - Monday, June 1, 2020
• Redhead by the Side of the Road - Friday, May 22, 2020
• The Mirror and the Light, book review - Sunday, May 17, 2020
• The Medal of Freedom - Monday, March 2, 2020
• The Topeka School - Monday, February 24, 2020
• Baby Trump - Tuesday, February 11, 2020
• Epstein - Thursday, July 11, 2019
• The Rapture - Friday, June 14, 2019
• The Trump Baby - Monday, June 3, 2019
• Tax cuts? - Monday, April 22, 2019
• Climate Change Deniers - Friday, March 15, 2019
• El Paso - Thursday, February 14, 2019
• Bill Maher and Comic Strip Characters - Tuesday, February 5, 2019
• Pence Letter - Saturday, January 12, 2019
• Trump Foundation to be Criminally Charged? - Friday, December 21, 2018
• LIES - Thursday, December 6, 2018
• Indicted Felons Elected to Congress - Sunday, November 11, 2018
• Jews, blacks and Mexicans are Individuals - Friday, November 2, 2018
• Demagogues Never Accept the Blame - Thursday, October 25, 2018
• Red Hats - Thursday, October 11, 2018
• Death Threats - Thursday, September 20, 2018
• Maria deaths and Trump's delusional response - Thursday, September 13, 2018
• Vote these Leeches out of office - Sunday, July 29, 2018
• The Red Hen Was Responding to Right Wing Provocation - Thursday, July 12, 2018
• Oprah's Focus Group - Thursday, March 1, 2018
• Human Wave Attack - Tuesday, May 30, 2017
• Trump's "advisers" - Wednesday, March 1, 2017
• Fake News - Tuesday, December 6, 2016
• No Judge Garland - Friday, December 2, 2016
• The Bill Hodges trilogy - Friday, November 18, 2016
• How About a Class on the Issues? - Sunday, November 13, 2016
• The FBI Director's Dubious E-mail Discovery - Saturday, October 29, 2016
• Don't Split the Ticket - Monday, October 24, 2016
• Why does the media keep Covering this Clown? - Sunday, October 16, 2016
• Household Income Up, By a Lot - Friday, September 16, 2016
• Let's All Grow Up - Monday, September 5, 2016
• What the Clinton Foundation Actually does. - Wednesday, August 24, 2016
• World Government - Thursday, August 18, 2016
• Elon Musk, Tesla Founder - Wednesday, June 29, 2016
• The Trump Charade - Thursday, March 24, 2016
• Why Don't Our Kids Know History and Geography? - Tuesday, February 23, 2016
• Our Irascible Congress - Monday, February 15, 2016
• Citizen Trump? - Monday, December 28, 2015
• Our Bloodiest War - Tuesday, March 17, 2015
• Greedheads - Monday, September 29, 2014
• Worst President Since WWII? - Monday, July 7, 2014
• Tenure for Teachers - Thursday, June 26, 2014
• Koch Brothers Interfere in Local Election - Thursday, May 8, 2014
• The Wolly Mammoth - Wednesday, April 23, 2014
• Fran Tarkenton's political ad - Friday, March 14, 2014
• Propaganda vs. Legitimate Commentary - Sunday, February 23, 2014
• Porn as a Political Issue - Tuesday, February 18, 2014
• Drive a Stake Through the Vampires' Hearts! - Thursday, February 6, 2014
• State of the Union Stem-winder - Wednesday, January 29, 2014
• Ted Cruz - Tuesday, November 19, 2013
• Here We Go Again. - Thursday, September 19, 2013
• Reality TV - Friday, August 9, 2013
• Common Sense - Tuesday, July 30, 2013
• Skunks Believe Everybody Else Stinks - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• The Morning After Pill - Friday, April 12, 2013
• What Would Thomas Jefferson Say? - Saturday, April 6, 2013
• Boneheads - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Why Benedict XVI Resigned - Sunday, February 17, 2013
• Gabby Giffords Testifies - Wednesday, January 30, 2013
• Newspaper Caters to Gun Owners - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Piers Morgan Deserves a Medal - Monday, December 24, 2012
• The Red Devil and the Blue Devil? - Tuesday, October 30, 2012
• Is the new TV show, REVOLUTION, fantasy? - Wednesday, September 26, 2012
• Fanatical Moslems Aren't That Different From Our Fanatics - Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• We Need the United Nations - Wednesday, July 18, 2012
• Stop Catering to People's Basest Instincts - Monday, July 9, 2012
• Concerned Women for America political ad - Saturday, June 23, 2012
• Independent Voters Need to Pick a Side - Monday, June 11, 2012
• Romney's Solyndra Appearance - Friday, June 1, 2012
• Single Issue Voters - Sunday, May 20, 2012
• Bully or Sociopath? - Saturday, May 12, 2012
• Tan-orexic Woman Poor Role Model - Friday, May 4, 2012
• So Far Right They're Almost Left - Sunday, April 22, 2012
• Dog Eat Dog - Sunday, April 15, 2012
• The Tea Party is Back! - Sunday, March 25, 2012
• Gas Prices - Tuesday, March 13, 2012
• "Doofus" - Tuesday, March 6, 2012
• Bon Iver Front Man Makes Important Statement - Thursday, February 16, 2012
• Contraception Blowback - Friday, February 10, 2012
• 800 vetoes! - Saturday, February 4, 2012
• Issa Hounding Holder over GOP program - Thursday, February 2, 2012
• Rick Santelli's Rant - Wednesday, January 18, 2012
• Corporate Raider President? - Thursday, December 1, 2011
• Is This the Best They Can Do? - Thursday, November 17, 2011
• Tea Party a non-violent Movement? - Sunday, October 30, 2011
• Wall Street Protests - Wednesday, October 5, 2011
• Three new stooges - Thursday, August 25, 2011
• Hypocrite enters the race - Friday, August 19, 2011
• Business Leaders Need to Speak Out - Saturday, July 30, 2011
• Rupert Murdoch and GOP Credibility - Monday, July 25, 2011
• Playing on the railroad tracks - Sunday, July 17, 2011
• Scapegoating - Sunday, June 19, 2011
• The Biggest Swindle in US history - Friday, June 3, 2011
• We're Still Here! - Saturday, May 21, 2011
• Improve education by improving teacher morale - Wednesday, May 4, 2011
• Tea Partiers Don't Know What They're Talking About - Thursday, April 28, 2011
• General Electric paid no corporate taxes - Tuesday, April 5, 2011
• The Flat Earth Society is at it again! - Thursday, March 17, 2011
• Crap fest - Thursday, March 3, 2011
• Egyptian Revolution - Tuesday, February 8, 2011
• Tucson - Wednesday, January 12, 2011
• Would you want a right-winger for a neighbor? - Friday, January 7, 2011
• Noah's Ark Museum - Monday, December 6, 2010
• Frick and Frack Shoot Off Their Mouths - Friday, November 5, 2010
• Enthusiam Gap - Wednesday, October 27, 2010
• Super Computer - Tuesday, October 19, 2010
• US Chamber of Commerce, conservative front group. - Wednesday, October 13, 2010
• 13 Reasons to vote the straight democratic ticket - Wednesday, September 1, 2010
• Breitbart Makes Segretti look like a choirboy - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
• House on Fire? - Thursday, June 17, 2010
• The Blame Game - Friday, May 28, 2010
• National Prayer Day - Tuesday, May 18, 2010
• Conservative psyche (continued) - Friday, May 14, 2010
• Conservative psyche - Wednesday, May 12, 2010
• Are you smarter than a half-term governor? - Wednesday, April 14, 2010
• Rewriting History - Monday, April 5, 2010
• Fred Phelps - Friday, April 2, 2010
• Combing the Daily Newspaper - Wednesday, March 17, 2010
• Noir - Friday, November 6, 2009
• Interview with SOLDIER'S GAP author continued - Tuesday, November 3, 2009
• More from SOLDIER'S GAP author - Thursday, October 29, 2009
• SOLDIER'S GAP author answers questions. - Thursday, October 22, 2009
• Everything you always wanted to know about writing a novel - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
• Manuscript conventions - Thursday, September 10, 2009
• Revision - Monday, September 7, 2009
• Dialogue - Thursday, September 3, 2009
• Scene cards - Tuesday, September 1, 2009
• Point of view - Thursday, August 27, 2009
• Plot - Tuesday, August 25, 2009
• Arnie's dream - Friday, August 21, 2009
• Rituals - Thursday, August 20, 2009
• Dressing Arnie Vogel - Tuesday, August 18, 2009
• Character sketch continued - Friday, August 14, 2009
• Character sketch - Thursday, August 13, 2009
• Characterization - Wednesday, August 12, 2009
• Scene outline - Tuesday, August 11, 2009
• Warm-up activity - Freewriting - Monday, August 10, 2009
• Warm-up activity - brainstorming - Sunday, August 9, 2009
• Warm-up techniques (clustering) - Saturday, August 8, 2009
|
