This article is for all budding fiction writers out there. If you want a publisher to give any future novel manuscripts of yours a chance, you need a track record of previous publications (usually, evidence of having had short stories and / or novellas published in the past, in a wide variety of magazines / e-zines / anthologies and /or podcasts relating to the genre(s) you write in.)
To make sure your short story has a fighting chance when submitting it to a magazine, anthology, e-zine, podcast, or journal, you need to read the guidelines on the publication’s website and follow them to the T. Take them completely literally and don’t skip any steps. If you ignore any of the guidelines, your story won’t even be read.
Most guidelines state that they want your story to be written in something called Standard Manuscript Format (SMF) or MLA (Modern Language Association) format. This means that your story:
- Needs to be in Times New Roman (or sometimes Courier) font
- The font needs to be 12 pt sized
- The first page of the story needs a word count in the top right corner of the page, and your legal name, address, and any other contact details in the top left corner
- The story’s title has to be in the middle of the page a few lines below your details, with “by” and your by-line (writer name) typed one line below that
- The header of every page after that needs a page number in the top right corner as well as the title and your name (sometimes just your last name) in this format: title / author name / page number, also in 12pt Times New Roman (or Courier) font
- The document needs to be double-spaced
- The first line of each paragraph has to be indented by a certain amount (usually 0.5 of an inch or 1.5 cm)
- The margins of the page need to be an inch (or 2.54cm) all around (left, right, bottom, and top)
- There should be only one space after each full-stop
- Scene breaks should be denoted by a single # symbol in the centre of the page
- The end of the story should be marked by the word END in the centre of the page
This is not always a given. I’ve sent stuff to magazines that have asked for the story to be sent in 14pt Georgia font before. Some places ask that you leave your contact details off the story so they can judge it anonymously. Some places ask for the page numbers to be in the footer and not the header. That is why you must read the guidelines, grasshopper.
The other thing you need to do to give your story the best chance of being read right through to the end is to thoroughly proofread, edit, or even re-write the story. Editors aren’t thrilled when stories turn up in their inbox riddled with typos, punctuation problems, and grammatical errors.
They also want to see a story that has conflict (drama), an interesting plot that hasn’t been used time and time again, and well-developed characters. Your main characters need to have a backstory, something that they want to get / find / achieve, reasons for behaving the way that they do, and obstacle(s) to overcome. Expect more on this in later articles.
Good luck and happy writing!
Nightwalks 