Standard manuscript format for novels and stories

Check their guidelines first.

Every agent, magazine and publisher has submission guidelines, usually on their website. Read them first. When they ask for something different from what’s below (a particular font, a synopsis in the same file, no title page), do what they ask. Standard manuscript format is the default for when they don’t say.

The checklist.

Paper: US Letter (8.5 × 11 in) if you’re submitting in the US or Canada; A4 almost everywhere else.
Margins: 1 inch (2.5 cm) on every side.
Font: 12-point Times New Roman, or Courier for the classic look. Black, and only black.
Spacing: Double-spaced throughout, with no extra space between paragraphs.
Indents: Half an inch (1.27 cm) at the start of each paragraph, set as a paragraph indent rather than with tabs or spaces.
Alignment: Left-aligned, with a ragged right edge. Never justified.
Running head: On every page after the first, top right: your surname, the title (or a key word from it) and the page number.
Page numbers: Continuous through the whole manuscript. Don’t start again at each chapter.
Chapters: Each starts on a new page, about a third of the way down, with its number or title.
Scene breaks: A centred # on a line of its own, so the break can’t be lost if a blank line slips.
Emphasis: Italics. (Older Courier manuscripts underlined instead; either is understood.)
File: Usually a Word document (.docx), named with your surname and the title.

What it looks like.

A novel manuscript has a title page of its own, then each chapter starting on a new page. Here are both, for a sample novel. The red numbers match the notes below.

Halloran / THE WEIGHT OF SMALL BOATS / 2¹

THE SLIPWAY²

The tide had gone out further than Nell had ever seen it, as if the whole channel had drawn a breath and was holding it.³

Her father’s dinghy lay on the slipway with its bow turned to the town. Someone had hauled it up past the weed line and chocked it with two bricks, neatly, the way you’d leave a thing you meant to come back for. The oars were gone. So was the name.⁴

She crouched by the transom. Where Margaret had been, in her father’s careful white capitals, there was a square of fresh grey paint, still tacky under her thumb.

‘You’ll leave a print,’ said a voice behind her.

Nell didn’t turn round. She knew the voice, and she knew that Ruth Calloway had been standing there long enough to watch her decide whether to cry.

Title page

Your name and contact details, single-spaced, top left: postal address, phone and email.
The title, centred about halfway down, with “by” and your name beneath it.
The word count, rounded: to the nearest hundred for a story, the nearest thousand for a novel. Some writers put it top right instead.

First page of a chapter

The running head, top right: surname / TITLE / page number.
The chapter title, centred, a third of the way down the page.
A half-inch indent at the start of every paragraph.
Double spacing, with no extra space between paragraphs.

For a short story.

A short story skips the separate title page. Put your contact details top left of the first page and the word count top right. Centre the title about a third of the way down, with your byline beneath it, and start the story a couple of lines below. Many writers end a story with “END”, centred, so the editor knows nothing is missing.

Common mistakes.

Indenting with tabs or the space bar, which goes wrong the moment someone changes the font.
Two spaces after a full stop.
Decorative fonts, coloured text, or a different font for headings.
Extra blank lines between paragraphs, as if it were a web page.
Page numbers that restart at each chapter.
Images, borders or a cover on the manuscript itself.

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In Wryte

Doing it in Wryte.

Choose File ▸ Export and start from Submission. Wryte makes a Word document in standard format and shows you a preview as it goes. It sets:

12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, with half-inch first-line indents;
US Letter or A4 pages, whichever is usual where you live, with 1-inch margins;
each folder in your manuscript as a chapter, under a centred heading in capitals;
scene breaks marked the way you choose, such as # or * * *;
a title page with the title, “by” and your name, and the word count rounded to the nearest hundred.

Before you send the Word file, open it in Word and add two things Wryte leaves to you:

Your contact details at the top left of the title page.
The running head (Insert ▸ Header): surname / TITLE / page number, aligned right, starting on the second page.

If you’d rather send a PDF, choose PDF in the same sheet: it draws the running head for you. You can round the word count to the nearest thousand in Word, if you prefer.

More about exporting from Wryte

Standard manuscript format, line by line.