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"Stop the Press!"
Though cliché, I've always wanted to screech this at a hard-working press operator. Well, folks, I've done it at last. I'm glad I screeched, but I'm not glad about the reason behind it.
I am speaking to you now from a self-imposed dungeon. I'm on skimpy rations, and I'm not allowed to have visitors. While my back is turned on myself, I'm going to talk to you about the reason why I put all of my titles on hold this week.
Typesetting
This can be an ugly word but when done properly, it can be a thing of beauty. When I typeset my first book, I ran into formatting issues and had no idea that my word processing program had the capability of fixing them. Before you send your book to press, scrutinize the layout so you won't be forced to reformat your text after your book has been published.
Below are two pages from my first book, Dead Bird in the Weeds. I'm going to identify four key problems which I'm fixing before this book is reprinted.
- The program is set to hyphenate words in order to achieve better spacing when using full justification (no jagged right edges).
- Take a look at the word "Terence." The word is split onto two lines.
- The end of line one: Ter-
- The beginning of line two: ence.
- Normally I would let this go; however, "ence." not only begins the line, it ends it as well. For me, this is unpleasing to the eye. The word is incomplete and too few characters inhabit this line.
- Another example: Do you really want a word separated like this: "separated" appearing on line one as "separat-" and finishing on line two as "ed."
- How do I fix this?
- Turn off the hyphenation for these two lines, or bump up the character count for the hyphenation.
- A new paragraph begins on the last line at the bottom of the page. This problem is called an "orphan." I pulled every book from my small bookshelf beneath the printer and found this problem does exist in some books, though infrequently.
- How do I fix this?
- End the page with the previous paragraph and push this problem line to the next page. Keep in mind that facing pages MUST have EXACTLY the same number of lines (if using full pages).
- If you trust your program, set the "widow & orphan" control to two lines.
- The last line of the paragraph is the only line at the top of the page. This problem is called a "widow." Again, I pulled every book from the shelf. I never saw this problem in any of the texts.
- How do I fix this?
- Send this line to the previous page or end the previous page one line early. Again, facing pages must have the same number of lines (if using full pages).
- If you trust your program, set the "widow & orphan" control to two lines.
- The last line on the right page ends as follows: Mat-
- Well, great! Do you want to force your reader to turn the page in order to find out what the heck the rest of the word is? I didn't think so.
- I have seen the last word on the left page hyphenated with the remainder of the word appearing at the top of the right page (though it does not happen often).
- How do I fix this?
- Turn off the hyphenation for these two lines, or bump up the character count for the hyphenation.
Before you begin, make sure you work from left to right. If you backtrack, you will create new problems in previously edited sections.
Check your titles, and if you fell into the same trap I did, I hope you take the time to go back and fix them. Your readers will thank you for making their job easier. After all, you don't want lousy typesetting to destroy the beauty of your words.
OK, I'm done lecturing now. Besides, my jailer is about to turn around.
***
As always, I love to hear from you. If you’re in the cyber-neighbourhood, drop me a line.
In the meantime, keep writing, reading, and smiling.
It’s contagious.
2 comments:
Personally, I've decided to let orphans go, as they seem to be very common in modern fiction. Likewise the old rule about ending a verso (right-hand) page with a hyphenated word. It seems nobody cares anymore.
However, I am taking a bit of an old-school approach to hyphenation, not allowing proper nouns to split, not allowing compounds to split except between the original words, and not allowing contractions or possessives to split. This last is probably the rarest of these, although you do see it occasionally, and the prohibition against splitting names is so widely disregarded as to give me a nice, comfortable "old-fogey" feeling. So that's a plus!
Exceptions can usually be listed somewhere in the options, the spell-checker's dictionary, etc, depending on the program you use, and you can also highlight a word or phrase and set the language to "None - do not check spelling," or some such.
I'm going to reiterate this hyphenation tip posted by Levi Montgomery:
"Exceptions can usually be listed somewhere in the options, the spell-checker's dictionary, etc, depending on the program you use, and you can also highlight a word or phrase and set the language to "None - do not check spelling," or some such."
You've raised legitimate arguments about the history and future of typesetting and there is certainly nothing old-fogeyish about the desire to make our work as attractive as possible. We cannot be too careful and we cannot be too scrutinizing in the formatting and assessment of the job at hand.
Folks, I have had the privilege of reading Levi's work. He is a professional through his creative writing and original design. His website is at www.levimontgomery.com.
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