Manuscript Spacing

by Marjorie
(Downers Grove, Il, USA)

Question: I am fifteen trying to write my first draft manuscript and I wanted to know, should I still indent my paragraphs on the manuscript or will that mess up the publisher's word count?

Answer: The standard manuscript format is to indent the first line of each paragraph five spaces to show that it is the start of a new paragraph.

Do not put an extra blank line or any extra partial space between paragraphs or lines. Just stick with standard double-spacing, so that you have 25 lines per page.

(If you want to indicate that a blank line should appear in the printed book, insert a line with just a "#" symbol in the centre.)

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