Please adhere to the following guidelines when formatting your stories. This makes it easier for us to format them appropriately for the site, eBook, and print. It also saves us time if we do not have to go back through each individual story to fix these ourselves.

• English. LT3 does not require that stories be formatted to American English, British English, Australian English, or any other standard, only that you are consistent in your use throughout your submission.
• Paragraphs. Be sure that there is a space between each paragraph. Do not indent your paragraphs.
• Headers/footers. None. LT3 will format these according to what is appropriate for the book/story.
• Quotation marks. You should format your story using straight quotes (” ” or ‘ ‘), not curly quotes (“ ” or ‘ ’).
• Emdashes. Emdashes should be formatted accordingly: word—word. Most word processors are programmed to auto-format a double hypen (–) into and an appropriate emdash (—). Note that there are no spaces between the emdash and words on either side of it. An emdash should also be used in instances where a sentence is cut off.
• Ellipses. Ellipses should be formatted accordingly: word … there should be a space between the word and the ellipsis; there are no spaces between the periods (.) of the ellipsis.

 

General Editing

Our editor-in-chief is rather picky when it comes to grammar and writing. The following are some things you should keep in mind to avoid offending her sensibilities.

— Do not use “you.” If you are writing your story in the third person point of view, please avoid use of the word you within the narrative body of the text. This does not include dialogue.

Examples for when such incidences normally occur:

It was the kind of day when you could drag your chair out to the quad and spend the next several hours dozing in the sun and pretending you were doing your readings for class.

The bar was warm and cozy, one of those places where you really felt at home, even if no one there knew your name.

 

— Avoid the use of epithets. If they are found by our editors, your story will be sent back for revisions to remove them.

An epithet is any adjective or descriptive phrasing that is being used in place of the character being mentioned. It is any instance where you are replacing either the character’s name or a pronoun that would reference him with an adjective or phrase (the mage, his lover, the redhead, the operative, the blond, the middle-aged professor, etc). Examples include:

He slid a look at Jeremy, wondering what the boy found so amusing.

The blond sat back in his seat, enjoying the view as his lover swam laps in the pool.

Cozying up to Richard’s side, Brad reached a hand into the tall brunette’s back pocket, in search of his wallet.

An epithet may be used in the case of a character who is unknown or has not yet been introduced, or a character whose identity is meant to remain a mystery.

 

— Avoid use of the phrase soon-to-be-lover.