Tag: download

Manuscript Format Template (free download)

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 MS-format

Have you read my posts on Formatting your Novel Manuscript? If not, read part one here and part two here.

I surveyed forty literary agents in October of 2014 to ask them which font they preferred for submitted manuscripts. The clear winner was Times New Roman. Many agents read pages on e-readers or mobile devices, and TNR is a web-safe, system-installed, serif.  Using TNR allows them to read pages without changing formatting first, but it is also an easy font to change.

Download the MS Format TEMPLATE.

Right-click the link above and “save as.” I saved it as a Word Document, even though I personally use Pages, so if there are any issues, please report them to me! Our PC isn’t working, and I don’t have Word on my Macbook Pro.

This template uses paragraph styles, which you can import into any preexisting document. Otherwise save a copy of MS Format TEMPLATE, rename it, and begin typing or pasting your manuscript.

Read through all of the instructions on the template, and save it as-is to keep as a reference. Do not type into the original TEMPLATE—type in a duplicate or copy file.

Copyright Notice:

This template was created by me for personal or educational use only. You may share it with others—simply give them this link or share the link on social media using the buttons below. You may not pass this template off as your own or charge anyone to use it. You may not upload the template to any website or blog.

Of course, you have full ownership of your own manuscript, whether you use my template or paragraph styles to format it.

The Dreamer Comic Fan Art

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I interrupt this blog about writing to post a fan art entry to Lora Innes’ FanArtPollooza 2014. Lora is the creator of The Dreamer, an online (and print!) graphic novel. The story is superb, and the illustrations are gorgeous. Plus, it’s historical fantasy, which is a genre near and dear to my geeky heart.

The theme for this year’s contest was Time Warp. I took one of the minor characters that doesn’t get much love, Liz, and turned her into a paper doll.

Click the image below to download your very own Liz Paper Doll (Open the link and save, or right-click and choose “Save as”), and be sure to check out The Dreamer!

Liz paper doll

Newbery Medal Winners in Fiction, 1950-1979

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Many, many moons ago I gave you a poster of the Newbery Medal Novels from 1980 to 2012. This one:

Download this poster here. Download the new poster below.

It took a really, really long time to make because I had to summarize all these books I’d never read into just 20 words or fewer. It was kind of exhausting, and I got distracted, and I never finished the other posters.

Then I read a handful of the Newbery Medal winners seen above, and several times I thought, “Really? This won the Newbery Medal?”

Life is too short to read you’re not impressed with, so I abandoned my project in the summer and started reading from a bigger pool of novels.

I realize that may come off as really stuck up. But I have high, personal standards for juvenile literature. I liked The Graveyard Book, I enjoyed my re-reads of The Giver, The Westing Game and From the Mixed-Up Files…, and I found Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! interesting. A Wrinkle in Time wasn’t as enjoyable to me as an adult—Calvin was a dear, but Meg, whom I loved as a child, I found to be more annoying, and Charles Wallace was…insufferable. Like, pre-dragon-Eustace-Scrubb insufferable.

Anyway, I got a recent comment on that post asking if I had finished the other posters. Short answer, no. Longer answer, with two kids, part-time jobs, etc., pro bono work gets put at the bottom of my gigantic to-do pile.

BUT, I got that comment, and because I haven’t been blogging much and to demonstrate that I DO listen to your comments (and because I feel bad), I scrambled together and finished part 2 of that poster series tonight. Let me know if you catch typos, because InDesign does not have a reliable spell check, and I am sleep-deprived.

Click the button below to download the Newbery Medal Winners in Fiction, 1950-1979.

A couple other notes:

  • Not all of the Newbery winners are included. They didn’t all fit! That’s why these are just the novels. Non-fiction and poetry compilations aren’t included. Sorry.
  • The boxes by the cover images include the date of the award and serve as a check box, so you can keep track of which ones you’ve read.
  • Since I haven’t read some of these books, the blurb may not be the best representation of the novel.
  • I haven’t printed this out myself yet. If the images are a bit fuzzy, it’s because I couldn’t find high-res images of the covers.
  • This is for educational or personal use only. You MAY NOT use these posters for any sort of commercial gain.

Want the books from 1920 to 1949? Let me know! I accept bribery and compliments. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until I get some more spare time, which will hopefully be soon!

Chekov Lists

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Motivation

If you are not of a geeky persuasion and/or have no appreciation for popular culture, you probably won’t appreciate this. But if you know who Pavel Chekov is, then I hope you like and enjoy.

I made a series of geeky to-do / check-off lists for you. I call them…

wait for it…

the CHEKOV LIST. Continue reading →