Your Legal Name (or Agent’s name) Word count: 80,000

Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Phone Number
Email Address

NOVEL TITLE

Pen Name or Author Name

Category (Adult/Young Adult/Middle Grade/et al.)

Genre (Fantasy/Mystery/Literary Fiction/et al.)

 LastName / TITLE (OR KEYWORD) / 1

CHAPTER ONE

Subtitle or POV Character

In the first paragraph of a chapter, there should be no indentation. This document template will

automatically add a 0.5” indentation at the start. However, you can hit the backspace to bring the

sentence back to the start of the line.

Every paragraph after the first one should start with this indentation. You may have the

urge to add an extra line between paragraphs, but that is not standard practice—so avoid that if

possible.

“What about dialogue?” you might ask. Reedsy has a guide on their blog to punctuating

and presenting dialogue where you can learn all about that. However, the general rule is that you

start a new paragraph every time you change the speaker. And every time that happens, you

should leave it indented.

“Just like this?” you ask.

“Exactly like that,” I reply.

As I said, there are plenty of other rules related to writing dialogue—most of which you

can find online—but you might want to watch out for a few in particular.

“Like what?” you chirp.

 LastName / TITLE (OR KEYWORD) / 2

“Small things that editors and agents hate. For example, never use all-caps in your

dialogue, even if you’re trying to express anger or excitement.”

“WHAT??! BUT I LOVE USING ALL CAPS!”

“That might be the case,” I say, “but it makes you, the author, look like an amateur (or

Owen Meany). And never underline anything in a manuscript”

“But you just did!” you protest.

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

***

When you want to signal a scene break—meaning that you’re moving on to a new scene

within the same chapter—you can either use three asterisks (as seen above) or the hash mark (#).

Both of these should be aligned to the center. Remember that consistency is your friend: you

don’t want any of your stylistic elements to distract from your wonderful story. So be careful not

to switch between asterisks and hashes.

***

When you’re ready to begin a new chapter, remember to start on a fresh page and type

the chapter title about one-third of the way down the page. If the chapter has a subtitle, you can

write that just underneath, but there should be a double space between the chapter titles and the

first paragraph.

If you wish to indicate some passage of time, you should write that two lines above the

chapter title. To demonstrate all of this, I’ll create a second chapter to this template. Simply

because I’ve run out of things to say, the words will be in lorem ipsum, which is a placeholder

language that designers use.

 LastName / TITLE (OR KEYWORD) / 3

An indication of the passage of time (optional)

CHAPTER 2

Subtitle or POV character (optional)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut

labore et dolore magna aliqua. Sem fringilla ut morbi tincidunt. Diam maecenas ultricies mi eget.

Molestie at elementum eu facilisis sed odio morbi quis. Quisque sagittis purus sit amet volutpat.

Nisi est sit amet facilisis magna etiam tempor orci. Semper auctor neque vitae tempus quam

pellentesque nec. Posuere lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vulputate mi sit amet mauris

commodo quis. Eu tincidunt tortor aliquam nulla facilisi cras fermentum odio. Non enim

praesent elementum facilisis leo vel fringilla. Auctor eu augue ut lectus arcu bibendum at varius

vel. Amet justo donec enim diam vulputate ut pharetra. Ut eu sem integer vitae. Sodales neque

sodales ut etiam.

Vestibulum mattis ullamcorper velit sed ullamcorper morbi tincidunt. Praesent semper

feugiat nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida. Morbi leo urna molestie at elementum. Cursus risus at

ultrices mi. Posuere morbi leo urna molestie at elementum. Consequat id porta nibh venenatis

cras sed felis. Convallis aenean et tortor at. Non sodales neque sodales ut etiam. Duis convallis
 LastName / TITLE (OR KEYWORD) / 4

convallis tellus id interdum velit laoreet id donec. Euismod elementum nisi quis eleifend quam

adipiscing vitae proin. Et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas integer. Sit amet massa vitae tortor

condimentum. Maecenas pharetra convallis posuere morbi leo. Ultricies leo integer malesuada

nunc.

Fermentum et sollicitudin ac orci phasellus egestas tellus rutrum. Massa vitae tortor

condimentum lacinia. Vitae tempus quam pellentesque nec nam aliquam sem et tortor. Nibh nisl

condimentum id venenatis a condimentum. Id cursus metus aliquam eleifend. Consectetur

adipiscing elit ut aliquam. Dolor magna eget est lorem ipsum. Sollicitudin nibh sit amet

commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum. Donec pretium vulputate sapien nec sagittis

aliquam. Blandit libero volutpat sed cras. Ac felis donec et odio pellentesque. Vulputate enim

nulla aliquet porttitor lacus. Dolor magna eget est lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Diam maecenas

sed enim ut sem viverra. Donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales neque sodales.

The End.