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For People Who Like Mystery Fiction
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 Formatting the Manuscript for Your Novel

I usually start writing my first draft as a formatted manuscript, which is different from what some other writers do.  It's really a personal choice.  If formatting gets in the way of your creativity, then forget about formatting until you're ready to send your beloved and highly-polished manuscript to your agent or publisher.  (If you're self-publishing, then the printer will tell you what the formatting rules are.)  Just don't forget about it entirely, when the time comes. 

I set up a template in Microsoft Word that takes care of the basic formatting issues, of which there are really only a few.  It's easy:

1. Go into Microsoft Word, and open a New Blank Document.
2. Save it as novelformattemplate, or something like that.
3. Under format - font, select Courier New, font style Regular, Size 12.  Everything in your manuscript should be in this font. 
4. In the top left corner of the first page, write your name, address, telephone number, and email address.  It should look like this:

Daniel McAdam
1313 Mockingbird Lane
Deadwood, NM 80001
(555) 555-5555
djmcadam@gmail.com

5. Go halfway down the page, center, and write "Title."  (You'll replace this with your actual title.  You probably knew that.)
6. Double-space.  With text still centered, write, "A novel by Clementine Curdmuffon" or whatever the heck your name is.  If you're using a pen name, something I'm personally not a big fan of, then you use the pen name here, but your real name still goes up in the top left corner.
7. Go to the last, or nearly last, line at the bottom of the first page, and write, in centered text, "Approximately ____ words."  Once you know the number of words, replace the long underline with the number.  Round it up or down, to the nearest hundred. 
8. That should be it for the first page.  Some writers will double space after the email address, and write something like, "Active Member, Mystery Writers of North Poultney, Vermont."  It's a personal choice, and personally, I'd be careful.  You may be an amateur - everyone starts that way - but you don't need to telegraph the fact on the first page.  I suppose I might add a line if I could say something really impressive about myself, like, "Recipient of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize," but then, people should already know that without me telling them.  Don't put a date, because dates make manuscripts end up looking dated.  Which, of course, the manuscript would be, and you'd have been the one who dated . . . never mind.  I don't put anything about a copyright, because I think it looks amateurish, but I can't give you legal advice, so do what you want. 
9. Get to the second page.  Go to View - Header, and then type:  "Curdmuffon / Title /   " with Curdmuffon being replaced by your surname, assuming it's different, and with Title being replaced by your title, assuming it's different.  Justify everything to the right.
10. Go to Insert - Page Numbers - click the Format Button and choose to start at 0.  Uncheck "show number on first page."  If you've done this right, then there will still be nothing in the top right corner of your title page - good - and the top right corner of the page you're now working on will say Curdmuffon / Title /  1 
11. Close the header box, and the page number box, if you haven't already done so. 
12. Go to format - paragraph - and under Indentation, special, choose "First Line."  It will pre-select 0.5", and that's fine.  Still in that box, under Line Spacing, choose Double.  This means, of course, that your manuscript will be double-spaced, and will be indented half an inch at the beginning of each paragraph.  There's no extra spacing between paragraphs. 
13. Go about halfway down the page, center the text, and write Chapter 1.  If you have chapter titles (isn't that quaint?), hit Enter and write the chapter title.  Then hit Enter twice, justify left, and start writing your novel.  The first line of your first paragraph should be indented, if you've done everything correctly. 
14. Put two spaces between sentences.  Really. 
15. Don't use italics.  If you really have to italicize something, and I doubt that you do, then underline it.  No fooling. 
16. If there's a break in a chapter between scenes, hit Enter, center, then type # then hit Enter.
17. When you've reached the very end of your manuscript, but before you open that bottle of tequila to celebrate, hit Enter three times, center, then put the following:

<end>

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