Questions about text appearance: styling, placement, fonts, indents, bullets.
5
votes
2answers
636 views
When should I use punctuation with bullets?
When writing bulleted items, what are the rules for placing periods?
Presumably bulleted items that aren't sentences wouldn't require punctuation:
Orange
Apple
Banana
But how about sentence ...
8
votes
4answers
4k views
How do you calculate the length of your manuscript?
Say I have a 100 page manuscript in Courier, 11pt, double-spaced. How many paperback pages is this roughly equivalent to? Is there a better font/spacing to use?
6
votes
4answers
2k views
What's the indent rule of poetry?
I've seen people indent their poems like below:
Writing on wall
It was just plane writing on wall
I must have taken it a serious call
She was on and off repeating same thing
There was ...
9
votes
5answers
579 views
When should a chapter end?
When writing a novel, when should I end a chapter?
Note that I'm not talking about chapter word-count (that topic was discussed here). I'm interested to know when should I end my chapters ...
8
votes
5answers
548 views
How should dialog be formatted?
Is there any "official" rule that I should keep in mind when formatting character dialog?
Line breaks, placement of quotes, mixing dialog with action descriptions etc.
For example, I want to build a ...
8
votes
4answers
945 views
What's the best way to show a foreign language in a manuscript?
What's the best way to show a character speaking a foreign language in fiction manuscript? Should the foreign words be italicized and include a translation? Should it just be included in the sentence ...
4
votes
3answers
503 views
Best markup language for a little story?
I'm writing a story in plain text using Vim text editor. It doesn't contain big tables, images. However, there will be short listings of source code in several programming languages and syntax ...
34
votes
15answers
4k views
Should you use two spaces after a period, or just a single one?
I had heard some debate on this topic, and I had always learned to use two spaces after a period. But it would seem there is an argument against it.
However, I do not understand what the issue is ...
5
votes
5answers
11k views
What is the proper way to write time in a manuscript?
I haven't been able to find an answer to this question for a while now. What is the proper way to write time in a manuscript? I'm referring mostly to A.M. and P.M. Should it be written in caps? With ...
7
votes
4answers
121 views
Formatting for stage, television, and the silver screen
What are the formatting rules for scripts? Are there significant variations? What differences are there between stage plays, television, and movies?
