where to put chapter headings

[cwilliard]

I'm sure this has been covered but when you start a new chapter halfway down the page do you put the heading at the top of the page or right above the text?
Is one of these the correct format or is it however you want to do it?
1. Chapter 1
X
X
X
Writing

2. X
X
X
Chapter 1
Writing

[Berry]

To start a new chapter, force a page break. Go halfway down the new page, type "Chapter 4", center it, space down a couple of extra lines, and start typing. Or you can do the same thing with paragraph styles if you like.

And don't obsess over formatting at this stage. Format however you like, but clean it up to standard MS format before you submit.

[cwilliard]

I am about to submit. Should I leave the the chapter heading centered?

[Cathy C]

Here you go! All of your formatting questions answered!

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26126

Good luck! :)

[cleoauthor]

Yes, keep the chapter headings centered. Half-way down the page and centered.

Good luck with your submission.

[cwilliard]

thanks

[Cathy C]

I will say that I've never dropped the chapter heading below the second line of the page, and nobody's ever complained. But that's just me! Good luck in either case! :)

[scarletpeaches]

To confuse the issue further, I don't centre anything. I type Chapter One (underlined), drop down two lines, start typing, all left-justified. All in, of course, double-spaced 12pt Courier.

[Berry]

To confuse the issue further, I don't centre anything.

Well, if you write a terrific story, they won't reject it just because you didn't center the chapter headings. And if the story is awful, perfect formatting won't save it.

People shouldn't obsess about formatting. As long as it's reasonably close to standard format (1 inch margins, 12 pt monospaced font double-spaced, black ink on one side of white paper) it's OK.

Of course, formatting *IS* one thing that's easy to be sure about, as opposed to "is my story any good", so it's not surprising that there's a lot of chatter about it.

[Jamesaritchie]

I think the thing to remember with formatting is that when you do it wrong, you probably won't get complaints, as long as it's simple mistakes like where to start a chapter and where to put in the chapter headings. Life is far to short to spend it trying to convince writers to get such things correct.

You will, however, make people grumble and gripe to those around them because they have to make the changes themselves. I always wonder why these things are even an issue. There must be a million websites that show correct format, and getting chapter headings in the right places, starting a chapter in the right place, spacing, font, etc., are covered by every last one of them. A great many of these sites even have sample manuscript on big display, and a glance tells you what to do.

Go to one of these professional websites, http://www.sfwriter.com/owindex.htm is one of the best, and do exactly what he tells you to do where format is concerned, no matter what you read or hear elsewhere. http://www.sfwa.org/writing/ is another excellent site for all things manuscript related. These sites answer pretty much every question there is, and they answer them correctly.