# Single spaced or double spaced?



## Conker (Sep 16, 2013)

So, here's a thing I'm kind of curious about. When you write, do you prefer single spaced or double spaced, and how do you measure the page length of your projects?

I've always stuck to single spaced, even though everything my college classes demanded from me needed to be submitted as double spaced. So I'd type what I needed and double space it at the end, which felt kind of nice going from two and a half pages to five or five pages to ten.

For my creative work outside of class, I still stick with single spaces, though it makes my page count seem less impressive. 

I think at one point, I typed up a page to a standard softcover book and wound up with half a page single spaced or one page double spaced, but I can't quite be sure and the amount of dialogue on a page would change that ratio anyways.

But what do you guys prefer?


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## Jabberwocky (Sep 16, 2013)

I used double spacing for a long time because schools require it. It's a great thing when writing school papers, but personally I like single spaces when I am not writing for homework.


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## Red Savarin (Sep 16, 2013)

Single spaced master race.

But on school papers, I'll used double just to stretch it out and make it look long. There's a surprising amount of my professors who don't ask for a word count.


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## Icky (Sep 16, 2013)

1.5 space. It looks nice.

I usually just use a word count to measure the length, too. :v


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## Littlerock (Sep 16, 2013)

Honestly, almost always double spaced, or at least one-and-a-half. Impractical though it is in regards to filling a page without wasting paper, I'd still rather have a tiny font and double spaces. It's just easier for the eye to follow, for me at least. I've never had trouble with hitting word-count minimums in essays for school, so I didn't piss around trying to fill the page or anything, I just like wider gaps in between my lines. (Pisses some teachers off though, having to read a 6 page essay, haha!)


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## Conker (Sep 16, 2013)

See, almost all of the essays I wrote in college were measured in pages. We had to follow that MLA format: Double spaced, 12 font, 1" margins. Though if you set the margins to 1.1" most wouldn't ever catch that


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## Littlerock (Sep 16, 2013)

Conker said:


> See, almost all of the essays I wrote in college were measured in pages. We had to follow that MLA format: Double spaced, 12 font, 1" margins. Though if you set the margins to 1.1" most wouldn't ever catch that



Even back in middleschool we were measured by word count here, usually formatting didn't matter too much, as it was required to hand in both a physical and digital copy of your work. Teachers still took off points and got really bent if you printed out the damn thing
formatted like this.​


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## Minako2012 (Sep 17, 2013)

Double spaced on final projects and on Drafts I go with 2.5 to make things easier on editors they can write corrections and notes and I can read them.


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## Matt the Wolf (Sep 17, 2013)

I write in single spaced when I am submitting to Furaffinity, but usually I stick to whatever kind of format my professors ask for at school. 

I like reading 1.5 or double spaced however.


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## Poetigress (Sep 17, 2013)

Fiction's generally measured in word count, so spacing is either a personal choice (if it's something you're printing out/reading onscreen yourself) or whatever the submission guidelines ask for (for works that are sent out to editors). For things I print out myself, I like 1.5, but double spacing is standard manuscript format for editors, so I usually wind up changing it to that in the final draft.


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## Friday (Sep 17, 2013)

Double Spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, Left Justified, .5 in indentation for paragraph begins and 1' indentations for everything else. Standard manuscript and everything else format. But that's just me, it would seem. And like most publishers, I measure length by word count.


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## Gnarl (Sep 17, 2013)

Friday said:


> Double Spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, Left Justified, .5 in indentation for paragraph begins and 1' indentations for everything else. Standard manuscript and everything else format. But that's just me, it would seem. And like most publishers, I measure length by word count.



I agree! that way I don't have to change anything when I submit it.


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## Conker (Sep 17, 2013)

Friday said:


> Double Spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, Left Justified, .5 in indentation for paragraph begins and 1' indentations for everything else. Standard manuscript and everything else format. But that's just me, it would seem. And like most publishers, I measure length by word count.


That's MLA formatting for you 

Huh, I guess I'm in some kind of bad habit then, since I almost never measure what I write by word count.


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## Scath-mac-tire (Sep 20, 2013)

generally when writing I prefer single spaced, but when I actually want to show it to people or measure the pages I use double space, force of habit form school I guess.


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## Stormyish (Sep 20, 2013)

You could start by writing well.
Writing well always is a good first stepping stone.


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## Conker (Sep 20, 2013)

Scath-mac-tire said:


> generally when writing I prefer single spaced, but when I actually want to show it to people or measure the pages I use double space, force of habit form school I guess.


Yeah. I'm eight single spaced pages into a thing, and it sounds better if I say 16


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## LegitWaterfall (Sep 20, 2013)

Double spacing, unless the text is big.


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## Fibriel Solaer (Oct 17, 2013)

I use 1.5-spacing as a compromise. I don't like double-spacing because it's a waste, but increasing the line space helps make it easier to read.


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## Aleu (Oct 17, 2013)

Single space for me. Mainly because I don't know how to format..


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