I’m always stressing Proper Manuscript Form for final drafts. You’ve got to have paragraphs! I tell my students. Real ones, not the double jump in space that your computer automatically does. You have to set up the paragraph format: indent the opening line, double space in manuscripts or 1.5. And use quotation marks because it’s confusing without them, and don’t do anything odd or weird in the text layout, keep the form simple so your words are all that’s noticed.

Then along comes James Frey and in his memoir about going through rehab, A Million Little Pieces. He uses no paragraphs, no indentations, no quotation marks, and capitalizes words at random in an odd and weird way. And it works. And Oprah puts her seal of approval on it and it sells about a zillion copies.

Then in a twist that redefines the word schadenfreude (what other writers are feeling right now), the Smoking Gun website accuses Frey of lying about key elements in his memoir. All hell broke loose today all over the front page of the Los Angeles Times and the Arts section of the New York Times. No one was answering phone calls. Not Frey, not his agent, not Oprah.

But this is about proper manuscript form, and here it is:

• Double space (1.5 or double setting on computer).
• Use paragraphs (unless writing poems, text for a children’s picture book or a blog)
• Re-set format on computer to indent five spaces and don’t double space between paragraphs.
• Use 12 point type.
• No fancy fonts.
• Your name on each page and number the pages.
• On the first page upper-left hand corner single space your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
• On the first page upper-right corner the number of words.
• No folders or staples. Fasten with a paper clip only.
• Use plain white paper.