Just wondering what the general consensus is for formatting scripts. I used to use Courier New, 11pt, double-spaced and justified but changed to 12pt Times Roman on the advice of a reader from a certain agency. However, I've just heard from an editor on another forum that justified scripts get immediately rejected and Times is annoying because Courier is so much easier to put editing marks on.

So now I'm back, well almost, to square one: Courier New, 12pt, double-spaced and aligned left.

Anyone use anything really odd, Creepygirl or Wingdings?

Colin M

Times New Roman - maybe Arial? - 12 pt, 2x spaced. I'd never justify! Why do you do that? It makes the formatting go completely weird - you end up with massive gaps and words stretched. Just left align.

Title, name and email address in the header. Page numbers top right.
Indent all paras. except the first in the block of text.

...well, that's how I do it anyway!

I'll go with Times New Roman 12pt too. It's the industry standard. Justified text isn't generally acceptable, and jeez, have you ever tried to save a justified MS on disc? It swells to about four or five times the KB!!! Took me ages to work out why I couldn't save my novel anymore!

I'm not so down with the double space though. I've now heard from two agents that it's horrible to read, and 1 and a half space is sufficent - unless the agent is blind, stupid, or seven years old.

JB

As far as I can see, the script industry is much stricter about how it likes its submissions. Something to do with being able to judge the length easily, which is so much more crucial, perhaps? Would BBC Writers Room or whatever it's called at the moment, say what they like? You couldn't be going far wrong with that, I'd have thought.

I'm not sure fiction agents and co. care so much, as long as it's clear: FWIW I've always done 11pt on double spacing Times New Roman, and never had any complaints. I'd always say no smaller, and nothing fancy - boring is good. And not a sans-serif face like Arial, because even if you're not aware of it, large amounts of text are more fluent to read if it's seriffed as Times is: the serifs lead the eye to the next letter. TNR gets more words per page in than anything else, so it's the tree-lover's choice too.

Emma

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Tho' the double spacing is partly because I want it for my own revising purposes, having big, messy handwriting. I wouldn't 1½ space 11pt, because it would be too cramped, but yes, JB, it looks good with 12pt, and you use about the same amount of paper as 11pt/double.

I use fancy fonts for certain characters dialogue, and no one's ever picked me up on that either. I even have a character who speaks in symbols now and then.

But yes, Times New Roman is the Tescos of fonts, and I'll be sticking with it for now. I once wrote a story in Arial but it didn't look right to me, like I was verging on home publishing. Thanks Emma for helping us save the trees because we need to. With the escalating prices of gas and electricity they are more at risk than ever!

JB

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I also have to write page width - otherwise my eyes start tracking. Imagine! In the future, to preserve our forests, us writers may have to write in 8pt TNR, single spaced by law!

JB

and jeez, have you ever tried to save a justified MS on disc? It swells to about four or five times the KB!!!

No idea what program you're using, JB, but in Word it's less than 1kb more because the justification isn't coded into the document - it's more of a flag for the for the word processor to see and lay it out real-time. I've just checked by opening the Devil's Prayer into a new document and saving both ways - justified it's 358k, unjustified it's 357k.

Sue H just contacted me to add another point: use underlining to indicate italics, not italic text.

Colin

Sue H just contacted me to add another point: use underlining to indicate italics, not italic text.

I think, again, that's a script thing; a hangover, like courier, from the old typewriter days. I think everyone else prefers italics. This debate makes me realise that the advice about layout etc. goes out of date quicker than anything else in all those how-to books.

Thinking of trees, it's a pity that double-siding things is so awkward, both to print on small printers and later to copy. That would save serious amounts of paper, but handling the beast is such a bore - whenever I've tried, I've wasted more paper than I've saved in getting in wrong.

Emma

Yes, I've heard of underlining, but I couldn't be bothered with that. Same goes for those pernickity editors who want name/page number/title at the top right corner of every blimmin' page. I just don't bother to submit because I just can't be bothered to waste an evening getting it right.

Colin - well now, my present computer was spit forth from the bowels of Hell somewhere around the mid to late Jurassic period, so don't say anything technical I say as wrote. I'm halfway to saving to a spanking new one, upon which event, the Universe is going to collapse in on itself and, at least figuratively, Hell will freeze over.

Like the title of your story by the way.

JB

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*take anything technical I say! See, these stone carved keys are rubbish!

Same goes for those pernickity editors who want name/page number/title at the top right corner of every blimmin' page. I just don't bother to submit because I just can't be bothered to waste an evening getting it right.

Don't you use the header box? You only have to type it once and it automatically copies it to the right place on every page.

I do know that putting any kind of password protection on a word document will knock the size up because it rewrites the entire document as apparent garbage, so it can't be compressed. (eh? eh? techy-rama or what???)

Doh!

JB

Hi guys

Justified text works best in newspaper type columns where unjustified text looks awful.

Besy

Prosp

Yes, and when we're talking in terms of Jeffrey Archer, it's plain that some text can never be justified...



JB

Hey Everyone. One of the new girls here and just been reading this fascinating debate. Now gonna join in! I haven't had a book published yet, which is why I joined you all ......for help. Didn't thik I would be able to help any of you though! But I do have a lot of professional experience in theatre and so quite surprisingly may have some advice to offer ..... Ignore me if I am talking thespian rubbish though.

I have always used a very standard page set up and have it as default on my lap top, which helps for speed. Top 2cm Bottom 2cm Left 3cn and right 2.5 (That is to allow for binding.) Footer is 0.5 Last up date, page numbers, and copyright go in the footer. I use either sylfaen 12pt or TNR 12pt; I always justify and double space.

Never had any complaints comments or problems, but this could just be the world of theatre. However, I did recently type out a MSS fo a young realtive, (I am not the world's IT expert, but he only writes long hand!)using this layout which he submitted and had accepted, so I suppose it must be okay in the book world.
Mary

I guess for the most part as long as it is neat, consistent and readable, you can use pretty much any formatting you like.

But it may be as well to check if you want to be considered by a particular publisher.

Best

Prosp.