We recommend the following Short Story Format by The Writers Room or William Shunn version. If you want a more interactive guideline, we recommend the following video tutorial created by Michelle L. Devon.
Pay attention only to those instructions pertinent to the Short Story format.
Our preference:
- In a font called "Courier"
- At a standard, easily legible size ("12 points")
- Double spaced (between LINES, not WORDS!)
- With a 1" margin on every side
- On one side of the paper ONLY
- With a ragged right margin (NOT fully justified)
- With your address in the upper left-hand corner of page 1
- With the word-count in the upper right-hand corner of page 1
- With the title in ALL CAPS in the exact middle of page 1
- With your byline ("by Alexander Bécquer") 2 lines underneath it.
- With the story commencing 4 lines beneath that
- With future pages containing the author's last name, the
story title, and the current page number in the upper
right-hand corner ("Author/STORY/2")