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November 14, 2023 will be the 10 year anniversary of the November 14, 2013 murder of my 8 month old infant son, at BugLight Lighthouse Art Studio of Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine. If you have any information about who his killer is, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207-774-9322

NEVER FORGET:

My Son Was Murdered, The Killer Walks Free, Your Child Could Be Next!

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FAQ: What are the most visited pages on this website and how many visits do they get?

Several years ago, I wrote an article on how to write different types of magic uses, or rather how I personally write various types of magic users within the context of my Quaraun books. Today that page is one of my top ten most visited articles. It gets 50 to 500 views/reads/hits/visits per day depending on the time of the years and has had over 200k visits total since it was published.

Amphibious Aliens: Debunking The Atwater Family's Alien Abduction Hoax with more then 30MILLION reads since 2007 and The GoldenEagle: Debunking Stephen King's World's Most Haunted Car Hoax with over tenMILLION reads since 2007 still rank as the two most visited articles on my website, but, neither of those are writing related.

Writing Medieval Servants is my most visited writing related article with over 7MILLION reads.

This website was started in 1996 and has 1 to 3 new articles (all written by me, I am the only writer on this site) published almost daily. In 2017 we crossed ten thousand articles published. As of 2023, EACH article gets MINIMUM 10 to 70 reads PER DAY, with the high traffic articles getting 500+ reads per day.

And since December 2019, my website now gets three hundred thousand to 7 million reads per month - well over ONE HUNDRED MILLION PAGE READS PER YEAR, making it not only the single most trafficked site in the State of Maine, but also one of the most visited websites in ALL OF NEW ENGLAND!

{{{HUGS}}} Thank you to all my readers for making this possible!

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 TRIGGERED! I'm a Straight Cis Woman, but I am deemed Too Gay For Old Orchard Beach, Are you too gay for the bigoted, minority harassing, white power, gay hating psychos of The Old Orchard Beach Town Hall Too? 

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Formatting Manuscripts 

Formatting Manuscripts 

Formatting Manuscripts 

When I was submitting to publishers, I just used standard format of 8.5x11 with .5 margins

However now that I primarily self-publish via Kindle Paperback, I use the template they provide, which is 9x6, with a lot of presets. It's specifically for their printers, so I'm not sure if it's standard to others or not. I just downloaded the ,doc file they gave me and saved it as "book template" then make a copy of it everytime I start a new book.

Just went and checked to see what the KDP template settings were. The one I am using says:

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

Inside (Gutter) Margins 0.5” (12.7 mm)

Outside Margins (no bleed) 0.25” (6.4 mm)

Outside Margins (with bleed) 0.375” (9.4 mm)

Font: Garamond 11pt, justified

They have a bunch of templates you can download, with all the standard manuscript formats used for each trim size:

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834230

The template sizes they have listed as available to download a template of are:

5" x 8" (12.7 x 20.32 cm)

5.125" x 8.25" (13 x 20.92 cm)

5.06" x 7.91" (12.85 x19.84 cm)

5.185" x 8.16" (13.15 x 20.44 cm)

5.25" x 8" (13.34 x 20.32 cm)

5.375" x 8.25" (13.64 x 20.92 cm)

5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm)

5.626" x 8.75" (14.27 x 22.19 cm)

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

6.125" x 9.25" (15.54 x 23.46 cm)

6.14" x 9.21" (15.6 x 23.39 cm)

6.265" x 9.46" (15.9 x 23.99 cm)

6.69" x 9.61" (16.99 x 24.4 cm)

6.815" x 9.86" (17.29 x 25 cm)

7" x 10" (17.78 x 25.4 cm)

7.125" x 10.25" (18.08 x 26 cm)

7.44" x 9.69" (18.9 x 24.61 cm)

7.565" x 9.94" (19.2 x 25.21 cm)

7.5" x 9.25" (19.05 x 23.5 cm)

7.625" x 9.5" (19.35 x 24.1 cm)

8" x 10" (20.32 x 25.4 cm)

8.125" x 10.25" (20.52 x 26 cm)

8.5" x 11" (21.59 x 27.94 cm)

8.625" x 11.25" (21.89 x 28.54 cm)

8.25" x 6" (20.96 x 15.24 cm)

8.375" x 6.25" (21.26 x 15.84 cm)

8.25" x 8.25" (20.96 x 20.96 cm)

8.375" x 8.5" (21.26 x 21.56 cm)

8.27" x 11.69" (21 x 29.7 cm)

8.395" x 11.94" (21.3 x 30.3 cm)

8.5" x 8.5" (21.59 x 21.59 cm)

8.625" x 8.75" (21.89 x 22.19 cm)

Courier and TNR are both not recommended for print as they are now considered fonts for web screens and don't print well.

Times New Roman is actually considered one of the worst fonts to use because it is hard on the eyes in print. Most publishers say in their submission guidelines, to specifically NOT use either Times New Roman or Courier or Comic Sans, as they are the "most amature" fonts. Palatino Linotype is the one most publishers recommend.

Standard fonts publishers use are

90% of the paperback books you buy in stores use: Palatino Linotype

Any not using Palatino Linotype are usually using one of these:

Garamond

Georgia

Book Antiqua

Hoefler Text

Caslon

Sabon

Tahoma

Verdana

Goudy Old Style

Bookman

Baskerville

As for what I use, it is always stated in the copyright pages of the books, because this is what ALL professionally trade published books do, you should open a few books and read the copyright pages once in a while. You might find it rather illuminating.

#1 way to tell a trade pubbed book from a self pubbed book is the info, or lack thereof, found on the copyright pages.

Here's the copyright page from volume 1 of the Quaraun series:

Okay... so... today is June 18, 2021, this page hasn't been updated in nearly a decade, and so here is an update.

I still do the stuff above, unchanged after all these years, this is just more info on the topic of formatting, specifically, it is dealing with how I format my chapters in my drafts.

>>>Should i worry about chapter length in the first draft? I am working on a fantasy novel right now, and i want to make the word count exceed at least 110k when i finish the first draft, but I’m noticing my chapters are short, and the longest chapter i have so far is only 3k words. Should i worry about this now, or try to add more filler details later in the second draft?

First off, I know this is Reddit, but that's no excuse for not having enough self respect to at least TRY to use even a little bit of grammar skills. Please. Consider trying to correct your grammar as much as possible before posting ANYTHING online, especially if you are looking to get published. Publishers DO look online to see what your posting history is. They like to deal with people who can act like professionals in public.

A typo here and there is one thing, but, your lack of use of grammar is a bit concerning, when you are posting on a forum for writers and asking professional career published authors for advice.

Published authors do tend to be quite an arrogant lot, sad to say, and about 90% of the published career authors here on this subReddit ARE quick to brag that they won't give the time of day to any "newb" who doesn't have enough self respect to use proper grammar when asking for help. They are often quick to brag that if you can't at least take the first steps to learning your craft, than why should they bother wasting their time on you.

I feel that your question would have received far more answers, had you made at least a little bit of a smidging of an attempt to try to use some level of basic grammar.

You'll get more answers from pro-writers on the career of writing, when you present yourself as viable competition and not a someone who doesn't take the craft seriously.

I'm looking at the snarky spit fire comments and the utter lack of any helpful advice in the comments of your question here and I am reminded of how dismayed I am to be part of a career that prides itself on it's prim and roper arrogance and ability to squash competitors simply by snubbing their nose at you and refusing to give you a civil answer.

You'll have to excuse the pretentious self righteous jackasses who couldn't be bothered to do anything other than post snark at you, but I'm telling you why they did it so that in the future, you can post questions and get actual answers.

Had your question not been a jumbled mess, riddled with endless grammar errors, they would have answered you with a plethora of how and why they make chapters like they do. But they just posted snark at you instead because, well, did you even pre-read what you wrote before you posted it?

Read your question again and, see if you can't edit out a dozen or so of the grammar errors.

And if you can't see the grammar errors... uhm ... find a REALLY good, PROFESSIONAL copy editor for your manuscript, because you kind of need one.

Anyways, let's answer your question, seeing how no one else can be bothered to act civil tonight.

>>>Should i worry about chapter length in the first draft? I am working on a fantasy novel right now, and i want to make the word count exceed at least 110k when i finish the first draft, but I’m noticing my chapters are short, and the longest chapter i have so far is only 3k words. Should i worry about this now, or try to add more filler details later in the second draft?

>>>Should i worry about chapter length in the first draft?

Everyone has their own method that works best for them, so if it's bothering you enough to cause you to have trouble getting the 1st draft written, than maybe you should think about chapter lengths during the first draft, just so you can move passed that worry and get back to writing?

Personally, I don't worry about chapters at all. As in, I just write the first draft, straight through and there are no chapter breaks at all. The whole thing is just one big long text, with no divider points aka no chapters.

Probably not a conventional way of writing. I know a lot of writers I've talked to in local offline writing groups, find my method a little strange, and most of them say they like to write each chapter as a completely separate doc file within in the novel's folder (on their computer). 

And years ago, I used to do that, but, I started fussing over the chapters too much and just slowed me down and interrupted my work flow. So I just started writing the entire 1st draft all in one big file and completely avoided even considering where chapter breaks should go.

Because I publish in the Epic Length Fantasy genre, my end goal is 120k to 130k for my novels. (I aim at an 80k end goal for my Harlequin Romances, and a 70k end goal for my Horror and Sci-Fi, so there's quiet a big difference in word counts depending on what market my goal is for; but most of my work is for a single long running Epic Length Fantasy series, and everything else is just one off random stuff I do only rarely, so, for my answer here, I'm focusing on the Fantasy lengths not the other genres) 

Usually my 1st draft will end around 50k to 70k, which is not close to the end goal. But that's fine, because during the 2nd draft, I will expand scenes, add scenes, delete scenes, move scenes, rewrite scenes, change character motives, add characters, remove characters, ask myself questions like: "Well, what would happen if Character A did this and Character B said that and Character C went there instead of here...?"

So for me, a LOT gets added in the 2nd draft, usually doubling the word count, and it's during that phase that I start thinking about where chapters should be and writing the "chapter end cliff hangers" and "chapter scene transitions" and stuff like that.

The 1st draft, that is just me getting the entire story idea out on paper in as much detail as possible. Kind of like if I was sitting around a campfire and telling a story to the gang, so it's just full on stream of consciousness without worrying about chapters and scenes and such. 

I like to get everything out on the page, during the first draft, and than worry about the details in the 2nd and 3rd drafts. I usually don't even start thinking about formatting (page breaks, chapter breaks) until after I've fully edited and polished the story a few times, so chapters usually don't show up in my drafts until the 4th or 5th drafts.

>>>but I’m noticing my chapters are short, and the longest chapter i have so far is only 3k words. 

As for how long each chapter is... I have no idea. I've never done a chapter by chapter word count. I have no clue how long my chapters in my published novels are. I know some chapters are long, spanning 50+ pages and other chapters are short only 2 or 3 pages, and most seem to be around 10 or 12 pages, but, I've never checked chapter by chapter word counts, so who knows how many words are in each chapter. As long as the total end word count meets with publisher requests, I don't think it matters how long or short each chapter is.

I just write each chapter until that section ends. I don't add more words just for the sake of adding words. I don't delete scenes just for the sake of reducing words. I let each chapter stand on it's own, as it's own "mini-story" with beginning-middle-and-end within the bigger story as a whole and let it end as long or as short as it needs to be to say what it is that it needs to say. That's how I do it at least.

Others may do it different. But again, it's all good. We each work differently, and it's going to be different with each genre, and with each publisher as well.

Just try different methods and figure out which works best for you. That's all any of us really can do. Trial and error until we find the best fit to match our personal writing style.

>>>>>i want to make the word count exceed at least 110k

>>>Out of curiosity, why? That's a 440 page book. And you want more?

My guess is they want to trade publish through some big house like TOR or something, where the MINIMUM required word count for Fantasy is 120k and preferred is 180k, and up to 230k is welcomed.

Pretty standard actually. Most big house publishers won't even look at Fantasy under 120k and will only go that low in word count if they've published you before.

While self-pubbed Fantasy has small word counts, big mass market pubs still want 150k to 180k mega bricks, so if the OP is aiming for one of those types of publishers, than yeah, 110k ain't gonna cut it. They need a lot more.

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What do you want to become? 
What did you do today to step closer to that goal?
Whatever you do, be your best at it!
And remember to have yourself a great and wonderfully glorious day!

~EK
EelKat.com
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By EelKat Wendy C Allen

If you ever made fun of or had any part in the destruction of my farm, and the illegal selling of half of my land to Colliard, you shall lose your land.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in my being homeless since 2006 - YES, I AM still homeless in 2023, you shall become homeless.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in the backhoe driving over my house, you shall lose your house.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in my car being cut in half, you shall lose your car.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in my becoming crippled, you shall lose your health.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in the murder of my son, your child shall die an equally horrible death. If you haven't got a child to lose, it will be a brother or sister or parents or spouse or whomever you love the most, and that you should know it was this curse which you brought upon yourself that killed them, they will die on exactly the 7 year anniversary of the very first time, you mocked the death of my child.

Evil men go out of their way to try to drive a person to suicide.

Are you an evil man?

Are you sure you're not?

How many people have YOUR hate filled words killed?

Next time you go to do a mean thing to a fellow human, stop and really think about the consequences of your actions.

Did you ever notice how every one has a story to tell about me, yet not one of them ever speaks the truth?

What lies has YOUR gossiping tongue spread about me?

Did you know...

October 16, 2006, bomb blew up my house because of YOUR lies.

August 8, 2013, the house which replaced the one the bomb blew up, was driven over by a backhoe.

November 14, 2013, my 8 month old infant son was murdered because of your lies.

November 14, 2013, I was beaten up, paralized for 5 months, spent 18 weeks relearning to walk, I'm now crippled for the rest of my life, because of YOUR lies.

Are you proud of what you have done?

Enjoy your eternity in Hell. You earned it. You've certainly worked hard for it.

~EelKat

If you have any information about any of these events, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207-774-9322