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How to Format Titles of Short Stories

Unless otherwise indicated, magazine and anthology editors prefer short story submissions to be in standard manuscript format. There are certain guidelines to go by when using standard manuscript format, including proper title formatting. Some writers like to use fancy formatting or text for the story's title. However, this is not necessary or encouraged. Before properly formatting the title, you'll want to make sure that the contact information and text above it is formatted correctly.

Instructions

    • 1

      Open the word processor of your choice and set your page margins to one inch all the way around. In the upper-left corner of the page, type your contact information. In general, you should include your full name, address, telephone number and email address.

    • 2

      Type the short story's approximate word count in the upper-right corner of the page. For example, if your story is 3128 words, you would type "approximately 3000 words" or "about 3000 words."

    • 3

      Move down to the center of the page. This is where you'll type and format the short story's title.

    • 4

      Type the short story's title. Do not include any special characters, such as quotation marks, unless they are part of the story's title (e.g. The "Big" Day Out). Do not bold or italicize the font. Do not make it larger than the other text on the page. You may type the title in all caps or in standard title case; this is optional.

    • 5

      Skip down two lines and type your byline (for example, "by John Doe") centered beneath the title.

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