Formatting for Critique Submissions

You’ve got a chapter done, and you’d like to get it critiqued by the other members. First of all – congratulations! “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Your work needs to be exported in PDF format. PDF is the acronym for “Portable Document Format.” On my computer or e-reader, it will look exactly like it does on your computer, regardless of the original operating system. And it’s the same for every other F3 member. So, here are some guidelines for formatting the work you want to submit.

  1. The text color should be black, and the “page background” should be white. If you have hyperlinks in the text for some reason, they can be of a different color.
  2. Pick one typeface. Ideally, you want a serif typeface (Times New Roman works well), 12 points in size, for your paragraphs. Plain text is best. If you have to, you can use bold or italic formatting on small portions of text. Alien languages or ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics should be inserted as graphics.
  3. Remember – you’re writing, and not publishing. Keep graphics and photos out of the text – we can’t comment on those.
  4. Use a single space after a period. Yes – “Do as I say, not as I do.”
  5. Set your lines to double space.
  6. Set your paragraphs to left justification, aka “ragged right.”
  7. Number your pages.

Whatever you’ve used to write your text should have a way to export your pages in PDF format. It might be under “Save As,” or perhaps “Export.” There are so many word processors, there’s no way we can give you the exact directions for exporting your work.

Remember, if you want people to critique Chapter 3, those are the only pages you need to include in your PDF doc. Make sure you haven’t included the last page of the previous chapter, and the first few paragraphs of the next chapter. Just the work you want critiqued.

Members will have access to Articles on how to submit PDFs for critique, how to work with PDFs others have submitted, and how to write and post their critiques.

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