Formatting Your Manuscript

As you are typing the beginning of your book, there is one thing you must do. You have to start formatting your manuscript. Knowing how to format a manuscript in the beginning will save you a lot of time and energy later, and will prevent you from having to go back after finishing your book to format each page one-by-one. It’s not that difficult as long as you do it right.

Follow these simple instructions:

* Use a 12-point font. Whether you use Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier New is your judgment call.

* Double-space                     

* 1-inch margins

* Indent paragraphs using tab (not an extra line spacing). I like to use .3 for my tabs

* Create a header for the top of each page. On the left side type: your last name/title of book in all caps/the word "manuscript", and on the same line but to the right will be the page number.

(Sometimes the program you use will let you insert a header that’ll appear automatically on each page and even allows you to insert page numbers.)

The header should look like this:

Last Name/TITLE/Manuscript                                                Page 1

                          

* When starting a new chapter go about 7 line spaces down the page from the header. This is where you type in all caps:

CHAPTER ONE -- THE CHAPTER TITLE (if needed)

* After you write the chapter number, go down about 5 lines spaces, indent using tab, and start writing the first paragraph.

* When you get to a new page, which is not the start of a new chapter, start typing 3 line spaces below the header.

FYI: You don’t have to use the exact line spaces that I indicate, but using spacing close to it would be wise.

* For words or sentences that need to be italic in a book (such as a characters thoughts) do not use italic. Instead, underline it because it's easier for an editor/agent/publisher to see.

* At the end of the manuscript, go a few lines spaces under the last sentence (or half-way between the last line and the bottom of the page) and type in all caps:

                                                   THE END     

                                                         

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Writing Chapter One

The mountain of crumpled paper is gone, and gone with it is the fog that had enveloped your brain. The first sentence of your novel is shooting fireworks off the page and excitement is bubbling up inside you as you write the rest of the first paragraph. Your fingers are vigorously tapping the keys on your computer while words practically tumble from your ears.

My fingers are vigorously tapping the keys on my computer!
Photo by Chrys Fey

Good! Because just as important as the first sentence is the content that follows it to create the first chapter.

Don’t skimp on the first chapter if you wrote a prologue. The first chapter is still critical even if content came before it. You don’t want your readers to be fascinated by your prologue but completely bored with Chapter One.

Personally, I absolutely deplore a book that doesn’t cut to the chase and start telling an interesting story right from the first few pages. I like books that are exciting from the first sentence, the first page, the first chapter, and doesn’t let up for a single second.


Photo by Chrys Fey

The worst thing that can ever happen is for a reader to pick up your book only to it put it down after reading a few pages. Therefore, you must create pages that sparkle to follow that masterpiece of a first sentence.

All of the writing that you do for your book should always be your very best, but the first chapter (and prologue) has to be even better in order for you to draw your readers in. And that is just what I am doing with my book. A shocking event happens just in the first chapter. Then in the third chapter, someone dies. Don’t forget though that this is the fourth and last book of my series, and unless your book is a fast-paced thriller too, you do not need so many shocking events to occur right in the beginning of your book.

Now what are you waiting for? START WRITING!

QUESTION: Do you like fast-paced books or books that are slower-paced?

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To Prologue Or Not To Prologue?

A prologue is an event or action that leads to the beginning of a story. For instance, our mothers giving birth to us are the prologues of our lives; it is what happened before we were born and our actual stories begin. 

From the previous blog (The Very First Sentence), the paragraph I wrote about the five year old girl committing murder could easily be a prologue, and chapter one could be set twenty years in the future when her childhood crime starts to catch up to her. Wouldn’t she be an interesting character to follow and get to know?

Whether you write a prologue or not depends totally on your story. They are not necessary unless you need it to build the story and provide important background information. An event that happens in the past, for example, can be a made into a prologue

This is a the first page of the prologue for the first book in my series.
Photo by Chrys Fey

In my first book, I used a prologue to introduce the main character and the setting because both are very unique. I also used it to provide a twist right in the beginning of the story. In my fourth book, I am using a prologue to start a shocking event, which seeps into chapter one.

So if you believe your story needs a prologue then what are you waiting for? They are fun to write! But don’t forget to make that first sentence shine.

QUESTION: Do you like books with prologues?

I do because they always bring something extra to the story.

The Very First Sentence

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The Very First Sentence

She didn’t think twice when she plunged the knife into his chest. The blade sliced through his heart and he fell to the ground with a thud. She was cemented to the spot, panting for breath that her fear kept stealing from her lungs.

When he didn’t move, she realized he was dead, and wiped the bloody knife on the skirt of her pale blue dress, staining it red. Her tiny hands shook as she hid the knife beneath a loose floorboard. Then she stood over him and felt relief flood through her three-foot-tall body.

Surely, no one would ever convict a five-year-old girl of murder...

A picture of me when I was little.



I will let your mind run wild as you try to figure out whom the little girl killed and why. The main purpose of this teaser is to demonstrate how the first sentence is the most important sentence in a story

When I was in school, I was taught that the first sentence is the hook. It has to grab the reader by the throat, brain and sometimes even the heart, and threaten to never let go.



It's very tricky writing the word "Determination" on a pencil!
Photo by Chrys Fey

You don’t want to start a story with: "It was a dark and stormy night." (Sorry, Snoopy.)

Instead, you want to start a story with: Fierce wind pitched shards of hail into the windows as a diminishing flash of lightning cast the entire house into total darkness.

The moment you finish brainstorming the plot of your novel (or even if you just have the beginning) grab your determination because you are ready to write! 

Whatever your story is about, and however it begins, make the first sentence engaging! It doesn’t even need to be long. It could consist of just a few words like, “She is dead.” and be equally amazing.

QUESTION: How would you re-write (in one sentence): “It was a dark and stormy night."


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Don't Give Up!

"A professional  writer is an amateur who didn't quit." Richard Bach

Are you having trouble figuring out the plot? The good thing about writing your own novel is that you can always add or take out events as you write. If you are clueless to what should happen just start writing and go with it.

Writing a book is not easy, but don’t let that stop you! I didn’t let it stop me….

I started writing when I was twelve, after I found that rusty screw, but four years and three books later, I stopped writing completely. Did I lose my writing mojo?

Obviously not, but I did lose interest in writing that old series because I had started it as a child and I wanted the series to reflect my adult mind. Therefore, I started the long, grueling task of rewriting my entire series. Was I crazy? Possibly, but I was also determined!

These are all the notebooks from my old series.
Photo by Chrys Fey

It was a difficult project because I was not working on a new book with a new storyline. I was reconstructing an old book and improving an old storyline. For months, I got and rejected many ideas. I started several new beginnings only to toss them out. Finally, one fabulous day, an idea came to me that I loved. I wrote and wrote, but when I reached the middle of the book I suddenly ran headlong into a writer’s block.

Weeks went by and I struggled to write. Then a miracle happened. I stumbled upon a rock band, bought their CD, and listened to it repeatedly. Inspired, I finished my book in just two weeks. However, that was not the end of my struggle. Far from it.

After months passed, I suddenly wasn’t happy with my book anymore so I read my manuscript and edited it. I repeated this process many times, even after I finished the second book, and when I was writing the third. I rewrote the entire beginning more times that I can remember because I kept wanting to make it better and better. In the end, I rewrote the first chapter, changing it so much that it became the prologue.

Another issue I kept coming to was that I felt like everything happened too quickly in my book. Yes, I write thrillers, but it bothered me. So I paused working on my third book to revisit the first and I edited it again for the umpteenth time, but more importantly, I wrote filling material to go between the action to make the story flow better and let the reader catch their breath.     

The finished manuscript for the first book in my series.
Photo by Chrys Fey

So yes, writing a book can be difficult, but don’t panic! Even if you get stuck or can’t seem to create content that you find worthy enough for your precious story, keep working on it and you’ll end up with something you're happy with.

QUESTION: Who inspires you (not just in writing but in life too)?

The CD that I bought which inspired me to complete the second half of my book in just two weeks was "A Beautiful Lie" by 30 Seconds To Mars.


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