The Adam Eradication

Finally finished The Adam Eradication rewrite this evening. Final word count 145,252. Down from well over 150,000.

Second Genesis is coming along though I'm stalled again. Word count 48,893 About 1/3 finishedHave to rework the outline, the plot has taken its own twists.

Eastward Toward Eden word count only 6,536 not even 1/3 complete

The Eve Beguilement stands at 65,012 words about 1/2 complete.

From the Garden, Cast is at 7, 535. The outline for this story need a lot of work.

Now that I've completed the rewrite I can get into the first book Second Genesis and get it finished.

Then first book in my coauthored series 'Tyranny's Outpost is at the publisher for proof reading and editing.

Science Fiction My first love

As young sailor fresh out of boot camp my first (and only ship) was the USS Fulton, AS 11. A nuclear submarine tender docked at the State Pier in New London Connecticut. I was a veracious reader and wound up borrowing book from another sailor who was into Scifi. The first series was I read was E.E "Doc" Smith's Skylark series. I never got around to reading his Lensmen Series, but the Skylar series fascinated me. Richard Seaton had access to computers to do his bidding.

You have to remember this was 1968 and powerful computers were still in the realm of Science Fiction. We all dreamed of getting our hands on a real computer, but at the time that was all out of reach.

Skylark is a science fiction/ space opera, a four (4) book series. Book One, The Skylark of Space (first published in Amazing Stories in 1928) is revolutionary in the genre. A scientist discovers a space-drive, builds a star ship, and flies off with three companions to encounter alien civilizations and fight a larger-than-life villain. Skylark Three and Skylark of Valeron written during the 1930s, and Skylark DuQuesne (DuQuesne is pronounced "Du Kane"), written much later in 1963.
Though the dirst three books are close to 80 years old and hard to read given today's standards, the conflict in the stories is the part I enjoy. A good screen writer could update these stories and I believe they would make a great Scifi movie franchise.

The numerous Scifi books I've read since then entertained me, though many I've forgotten. The stories I will always enjoy the most are the ones were the technology takes a back seat to the conflict of man against the plots of men. Star wars(The original three). Star Trek (Any Series but the original show. Shatner Ugh) Babylon 5, Battle Star Galactica, The Last Star Fighter (Movie and Book). 2001 A Space Odyssey, X-Men. Early films like The Angry Red Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, When Worlds Collide. The list goes on.

While I get into and enjoy Fantasy Fiction, I've read "The Hobbit" and "Lord Of the Rings and other series in that genre, Science Fiction stories about man's struggle against the his fellow man will remain my first love, because it always boils down to the hero's inner conflict not to (borrowing a familiar phrase) cross over to the dark side.

Michael Clarke Duncan

The lose of Michael Clarke Duncan at age 54 saddens me.  I saw him on screen  in Stephen King's The Green Mile, the role won him an Academy Award nomination. One has but to watch a little of this great movie to see he drew his character's emotional depth from his heart not from acting classes. He appeared on the now canceled, Hart Hanson's TV series The Finder. He played Leo Knox, legal advisor to Major Walter Sherman, played by Geoff Stults. Walter suffered a brain injury from a roadside bomb and is obsessed with finding things. Duncan's as Leo was forever trying to keep Walter out of trouble by reminding his of the law's he was violating, in that deep baritone voice that was uniquely his.

Michael Bay, director of the film "Armageddon" paid this tribute to Duncan on his website, describing the actor he hired to play Bear. Bay said Duncan wasn't a natural born actor at first: "I remember looking to Ben Affleck and thinking we might need to fire him. But I told him 'Mike, I hired you for you, I want the sweet, Mr Clarke Duncan I met in that room'. I said, 'the audience is going to fall in love with you'. He looked and smiled with [his] deep voice and said 'Ok'. From then on out he became the most improved actor on the set. That was the award he got at the end of the film. Everyone loved him, his infectious spirit and great belly laugh." (Reprinted from Yahoo News)

You will be missed, Thank You Michael for being genuine.

Character Counts

I cannot help but get a little political during this season of Obamacratic (Saw the name online the other day and I like it) insanity. With morally bankrupt leadership, the Obamacrats are meeting in their convention this week. I saw this story online dealing about the character of the Republican nominee Mitt Romney and though it worth putting up here. This is not my work. It was posted on September 1, 2012 by The Godfather

Read more: http://godfatherpolitics.com/6868/the-story-that-could-win-mitt-romney-the-presidency/#ixzz25QxUIzcu

Character Counts and it seems that Mitt Romney has a life time showing his off. Not that the man will tell these stories himself. Stories of his character come from others he has served. Please read.

It’s been said by the Democrats that Mitt Romney is a murderer, felon, and tax cheat. Democrats have also maintained that Bain Capital is all about making money and destroying the little guy. As it is with Liberals, there are no facts to back up the allegations. People are supposed to believe them because the Democrats say they’re true. Here’s a story about Mitt Romney that’s been fact checked.

“In July 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain Capital, had disappeared. She had attended a rave party in New York City and gotten high on ecstasy. Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was. Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to help find Gay’s daughter.
Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to assist with the search.

“He established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York, and asked them to help find his friend’s missing daughter. Romney’s accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on street poles, while cashiers at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper. Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and talked with everyone they could – prostitutes, drug addicts – anyone.

“That day, their hunt made the evening news, which featured photos of the girl and the Bain employees searching for her. As a result, a teenage boy phoned in, asked if there was a reward, and then hung up abruptly. The NYPD traced the call to a home in New Jersey, where they found the girl in the basement, shivering and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from a massive ecstasy dose. Doctors later said the girl might not have survived another day. Romney’s former partner credits Mitt Romney with saving his daughter’s life, saying, It was the most amazing thing, and I’ll never forget this to the day I die.’

“So, here’s my epiphany: Mitt Romney simply can’t help himself. He sees a problem, and his mind immediately sets to work solving it, sometimes consciously, and sometimes not-so-consciously. He doesn’t do it for self-aggrandizement, or for personal gain. He does it because that’s just how he’s wired.


“Many people are unaware of the fact that when Romney was asked by his old employer, Bill Bain, to come back to Bain & Company as CEO to rescue the firm from bankruptcy, Romney left Bain Capital to work at Bain & Company for an annual salary of one dollar. When Romney went to the rescue of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, he accepted no salary for three years, and wouldn’t use an expense account. He also accepted no salary as Governor of Massachusetts.

Character counts!! (and yes…that’s worth reading again!)”

This story reminds me of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37) in that he used his own funds to care for the man found on the road:

 ”A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands? And he said, ‘The one who showed mercy toward him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same.’”

Read more: http://godfatherpolitics.com/6868/the-story-that-could-win-mitt-romney-the-presidency/#ixzz25Qwm1aOe

As an added note from me. In the day the priest and levite were supposed to be the examples of strict followers of Jewish law. The master used, in his parable, a Samaritan because among the Jews the Samaritans were despised. I'm sure his message stung more than a few listeners. The answer to the question "Am I my brother's keeper?" is yes.

Writing Better Part 6

ROMANCING YOUR CHARACTERS:

17 steps to creating characters your readers can’t help but fall in love with:

01) Establish reader identification with your characters as close to the opening as possible;

02) Don’t have too many characters - combine the roles and functions of two characters into one;

03) For maximum effect and drama, create sharply contrasting characters;

04) Give readers someone to hate as well as love;

05) Give characters visual traits or tags;

06) Show, don’t tell;

07) Keep dialog in balance with narration and body language;

08) Be original in descriptions - avoid overuse of metaphors and similes;

09) Give each character an extensive history;

10) Let your characters grow, while keeping them in character;

11) Keep all characters true to time period and environment;

12) Keep character names as dissimilar as possible, and make sure the names are appropriate for the time period and geographical location;

13) Always give characters a sense of purpose, even if just to survive;

14) Give characters positive and negative personality traits;

15) Give characters a problem to which readers can relate;

16) Make each character unique, with some quirk which sets them apart from other, similar characters;

17) When you have writer’s block, try writing everything you know about your major characters.

ONCE UPON A CHARACTER:

Rather than telling readers about a character’s quirks and personality traits, showing them allows the reader to participate in the characterization process.

Faultless characters are irritating. And villains with no redeeming qualities stop being human. One of the best ways to create memorable characters is to play against archetypes.

Always create a strong first impression.

Idiosyncrasies of speech can place a character in readers’ minds more firmly than anything.

The essence of a memorable character lies in his ability to rise above his human fears and longings.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/search/Dwayne%20Bearup/10

Read 3 Chapters

I spent the day reinstalling the OS on my PC. I was able to get the PDF of the first 3 chapters of Second Genesis up on my website for download.

http://www.mesatyree.com/Links/tabid/62/Default.aspx

Please let me know what you think.

Recovering Second Genesis & TV Shows

I have spent the last week rewriting the first nineteen chapters of Second Genesis. With the accidental overwrite I lost a lot more then I realized. But I'm about 50% recovered. I cannot remember everything, so then chapters are not quite the same. I have been able to add some details I hadn't considered before, so while I am missing some of the original plot and dialogue I am almost done with the rewrite.

I've been trying to catch up on some of my shows.

Warehouse 13
 I do get a kick watching Saul Rubinek square off with Brent Spiner. In case some of you don't recall the two actors crossed paths on Star Trek's TNG in the episode 22 "THE MOST TOYS" Saul, playing Kivas Fajo, who tries to make Data (Brent Spiner) part of his  collection of contraband treasures, by faking his death. I believe it was the first time I can remember I saw Data wanted to take a life. Warehouse 13 is always a must see for me and my DVR is set so I won't miss a broadcast.

Alphas,
I'm still trying to get the hang of Alphas. The last episode Gaslight had me so frustrated. The script was choppy and I found myself hoping for a quick end to the show. Then end was a let down and the whole thing didn't seem to fit the shows theme. I hope the writers start writing in more cooperation between members. After the well son first season I a bit disappointed with season 2 so far.

Leverage
This cast is in tune with their characters, each other and it shows on screen. The First Contact Job, episode 65 aired on 8/5 of this year. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, who did a marvelous job directing Star Trek, First Contact. When I was his name pop up as director on this episode I knew it would a well done. The kicker for me was the name of Christan Kane's character in this episode, Willie Riker. Joanthan Frakes as every Star Trek fan knows played William Riker the Enterprise's first officer.I have to wonder how many other viewers caught the reference?

Leverage's twist and fall back to B&W scenes of the real twist are great. I so appreciate the character development and interaction. The writers have done a great job of adding depth to characters on each show. This is one of the reasons I keep watching.

Falling Skies
I missed the first season of Falling Skies, so I am not caught up on all the characters and their place in the show. The show, as far I can see, is well plotted and the actors are into their characters. The Season Finale left a lot of question to answer. That alone would bring me back for the next season. I need to sit down and watch all the episodes so I can be more detailed, but it is a great show. keep up the good work.

   used

Backups

We made a serious error this week. While working on Second Genesis the file was corrupted and we lost the last 2 weeks worth of changes. No problem my off site back up runs nightly. I figured all I have to do is restore one of the five copies on Richard's backup server. Only one problem The BU server was recently switch and while transitioning to the new server no backup was created the folder holding Second Genesis and other books. We lost about a months work by having to revert to an older copy.
I cannot stress enough how important backups are. Don't be lulled into believing that the system your pounding out your great America novel out on will last forever. Even brand new hard drives crash, corrupt, or just stop working.
There are  a number of very reliable and affordable backup services on the web, though a local back is more convenient. A combination of both is even better. First an external hard drive is a great way to start. Windows has it own built in backup system, though I prefer a third party solution. One I've used with a great deal of success is Second Copy, another is Genie. Once a backup of your flies is on the external Hard Disk Drive you can then backup those files to your off site server.

Don't trust your luck. Backup, bakup, bsckup.

Manuscript Formatting (Part Two)

Paragraphs: A paragraph is a grouping of text by subject or flow of thought. There is no standard for length. A paragraph is ended by inserting a hard return, meaning that the author physically strikes the Enter – Return key to move to the left margin.

Industry Use: New paragraphs are inserted when switching speakers in dialogue, when changing subjects in narrative, or there is a break in pattern. It’s better to have short paragraphs than long ones, for ease of reading. Take care not to split a thought too abruptly. When typing single spaced text, two hard returns are used to separate the paragraphs. When typing double spaced text, a single hard return is used, to avoid large gaps on the page.

Industry Use: There is much debate on where on the page to begin typing text upon starting a new book chapter. The two primary methods are: 1) Quad space (two double spaces) from the top margin, after which the words Chapter xx are center justified (and may be bolded, italicized, typed in ALL CAPITALS, or underscored), then drop down two more double spaces and begin to type; or 2) Double space until approximately 1/3 of the way down the page, center justify the words Chapter xx (and may be bolded, italicized, typed in all capitals, or underscored. Then drop down two more double spaces and begin to type. It is recommended that authors seek guidelines from publishers as to how they prefer chapter start points.

Proofreader's Marks: Handwritten notations made with colored pencil on a manuscript by an editor, using symbols that instruct the typesetter to add or subtract formatting or words.

Industry Use: Most publishers still use this method of editing of manuscripts, and it's a good idea for authors to learn how to read the marks so that editing goes smoothly.

Sentence Spacing: When the end of a sentence is reached, a period is inserted, after which either one or two spaces are inserted using the space bar.

Industry Use: When publishers format a book for press, they reduce spacing between sentences to a single space. Because the full justification of the printed page will add or subtract microspaces to achieve the proper length. However, most people learned to type or keyboard using two spaces, which is the standard for business. For the purpose of submitting a manuscript, an author may insert either one or two spaces, as they choose. If a publisher or agency has preferences as to single space or double space after periods, they will state this. Word processing software allows for global replacement of this, if necessary. WordPerfect allows you to automatically choose under Tools> Quick Correct> Format-As-You-Go. Under End Of Sentence Corrections.

Fonts
A few words before we get into fonts. I use Century Schoolbook font while developing my own manuscript. My writing partner prefers Courier New for chapters in our series. While you might be tempted to use a font pleasing to your eye, submission of you manuscript must follow industry standards. You can work in any font but change the font to Courier New before your submit. Another distinction is Serif vs San Serif (Serifs" are the tags at the edges of the top and bottom of the letters. San Serif means without serifs) Serif fonts are considered easier to read on the printed page.
Times New Roman.

Definition: This font style is normally the default font in most if not all word processing programs. It is a serif font and is considered a "proportional" font. This means each letter is given a different amount of space on the page.

Industry Use: While it is a stylish font, it is quite a bit smaller than Courier New and, therefore, harder to read for long periods. It is discouraged when submitting manuscripts, but probably wouldn’t result in rejection of the work on its own.

Bold Font:  Usually used for headings or to make text stand out from surrounding text, "bold" is an appearance attribute that is available in most word processing programs.

Industry Use:  Bolding text is most commonly used in non-fiction and article writing for headings, hyperlinks and lists within a paragraph. It’s seldom used in fiction writing, because italics take the place of bold to bring attention to text.
Courier 12 – Courier New
Courier 12 is the name of a font style. The number ‘12' does not have any bearing on the font size. Because of confusion in the size issue, the font name was changed to ‘Courier New’ in word processing programs. They are the same font, and the names can be used interchangeably. For clarity I will use the name Courier New.

Industry Use: Courier New is industry standard for book manuscript preparation. I strongly encouraged writer and authors of both fiction and non-fiction are to use Courier New when submitting manuscripts to publishers or agents. Courier New

Courier New:  A fixed size, serif font. This means that each letter takes up the same amount of space, side to side, as any other letter. For instance, the letter ‘i’ takes the same space as the letter ‘m’ or ‘w’ on the page.) "
Courier New   This is Courier New. (A Serif Font)
Ariel     This is Arial (A sans serif font)

Industry Use: Industry standard for book manuscript preparation and submission is Courier New. I strongly encouraged authors of both fiction and non-fiction to use Courier New when submitting manuscripts to publishers or agents.

Cover Sheet: The cover sheet is a blank title page separate from the story or manuscript. On this page is the author's name, full postal address, email address, word count of submission, whether the submission has been published before, and name of publication, date, etc.

Industry Use: While not often requested by American publishers or magazines, it appears to be a common guideline for submissions in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth, Australia and New Zealand. It's strongly suggested that authors seek out guidelines from foreign publishers before submitting manuscripts.

Font Size: Unlike typewriters, word processors fonts are ‘scalable.’  Most fonts are available in sizes ranging from 6 point to 48 point and above.

Industry Use: The industry standard is 12 point type. This is the default setting of most word processors. Again I strongly recommend authors use this point size when submitting manuscripts to publishers or agents.

Underscoring: Usually used for headings or to make text stand out from surrounding text, "underscore" is an appearance attribute that is available in most word processing programs.
Industry Use: Underscoring text is most commonly used in non-fiction and article writing for headings, and hyperlinks. It’s seldom used in fiction writing by itself, because italics take the place of underscoring to bring attention to text. However, underscoring is recommended to identify italicized text in a manuscript you are submitting.

Word Count
Word Processor vs Manual Count

Word Processors: Word processors include a function to tell an author how many words a chapter or entire manuscript. In WordPerfect, you can find this by selecting File > Properties > Information. In Word, it can be found in File > Properties > Statistics.

Industry Use: The word processor word count has become the norm in the publishing industry. However, because the word processor counts every single word, from "a" to "publishing" as one word, it’s difficult for a publisher to use it to determine page count after printing. For this, some publisher still rely on the 250 word per page method. Many publishers and agencies still request that an author provide the word count using the other method.

With the advent of WordPerfect ver X4 and X5 this should disappear quickly WordPerfect added a wonderful function on the bottom of the main screen To the left of the box indicating wether you are using the insert or typeover function there is another box ‘<COUNT>’. Mouse click here and you will see the word count of the document you are working in. Highlight a portion of the document and click, the word count of the highlighted portion appears. You can highlight a paragraph, page, chapter or any portion of a document, click and the word count appear immediately. No more counting words on a page by hand.

Manuscript Formatting (Part One)

Properly formatting one's manuscript is the bane of existence for any beginning author. Questions about how to properly prepare a manuscript for submission to a potential publisher or agent is one the questions most frequently asked by beginners. I’ve taken the time to write up a listof the definitions of many of the common formatting topics and how they are handled by traditional publishers. It is my hope this article will help a lot of you to navigate the hurdles successfully.

Formatting: Formatting is the method of manuscript presentation. Included in this are the margins, line spacing, font style, and size, etc.

Industry Use: Every publishers or agencies have their own specific manuscript preferences for presentation. The best practice for any author is to seek the company’s preference. You can obtain these by writing for guidelines or visiting their website. If their specific preferences are not listed, the following list is considered "standard for the industry."

Chapter Breaks = Hard Page End
Font Style = Courier New
Font Size = 12 point.
Headers showing title of book/name of author = Required - TITLE/AUTHOR/PAGE#
Indentations at Paragraph Beginning = Required, One tab stop/First Line Indent, equaling five spaces
Italics for emphasis = Underscore where italics would appear.
Justification = Left justified (ragged right margin)
Line Spacing = Double
Margins = one inch all around.
Page Numbering = Yes, bottom or top of each page.
Paper Size = 8-1/2" x 11" white, single sided.
Paragraph Breaks = Hard Return

Headers: A "header" is a string of text to be inserted at the top of every (or every other) page that does not appear until printed or in "print view."

Industry Use: For the purpose of submitting manuscripts in print, headers are considered industry standard. Headers should contain some combination of: Title – Author – Page Number and Date. However, some companies discourage using them when sending an electronic file, since the header command might not translate to the agent’s/publisher’s computing platform (PC, Mac, Linux.) Since there is no specific industry standard with regard to submitting in electronic, the author should check the guidelines for the publisher.
Indentations – Tab Stops: Indentations, also known as tab stops, are used to signal a change in thought. They are most often used when changing paragraphs or adding dialogue, and are created by pressing the "Tab" button one time.

Use in industry: Tabbing once at the beginning of a new paragraph is industry standard.


Italics: Usually used to make text stand out from surrounding text, "italics" is an appearance attribute that is available in most word processing programs.

Industry Use: In non-fiction and article writing, italics are used for headings, or lists when the use of bold text is undesirable. In fiction writing, italics are used for:

a) Emphasizing text. "You want to go where?"
b) Internal dialogue (character thoughts that aren’t spoken.) I shouldn’t have had that last burrito.
c) Telepathy in SF/Fantasy novels. When characters can speak mind to mind, italics set this off for
    the convenience of the reader.

Courier New (Normal Font)
Courier New (This is Courier New in italics)

The use of italics in a manuscript can be tricky. Using Courier New font, the italicized words are slightly slanted, making it difficult to see Italics words. Therefore, most publishers request that words which the author intends to italicize should be underlined (or underscored) instead in the manuscript. This means you underscored, not both italicized and underscored.

Justification: Justification is how the text appears from left to right, or where on the page they appear.

There are four styles of justification:
1) Left Justified = all lines of text are even only on the left side. The right side will end where appropriate for the word length.
2) Right Justified = all lines of text are even only on the right side. The left side will begin in a ragged fashion.
3) Center Justified = lines of text appear centered from left to right between the margins.
4) Full Justified = lines of text are straight on both the left and right sides. While common in business and book printing, full justified relies on adding or subtracting microspaces between words or letters to achieve a smooth finish. This will cause uneven spacing between the words and I do not recommend in a manuscript.

Industry Use: Left Justification is industry standard for manuscript submission for both fiction and non-fiction.

Scene or Line Breaks: Used when moving to a different location, forward in time, or to a different person’s perspective (Point Of View) in fiction without ending the chapter, a scene break is called for.

Industry Use: One of the most confusing issues in writing, a "Scene break" is the scene break or POV switch. An author should either use an extra double space (the only time when this is acceptable) or a single or double hash mark ("#", symbol above the number 3 on your keyboard), against the left margin to indicate a scene break. Another way to handle a change in POV is to end a chapter. This give the reader a break in mentally and the shift in perspective is more natural. This is not always possible but for a POV shift it is easier for readers to track.

Chapter Breaks: A chapter break is most commonly achieved through the use of a hard page return (pressing Ctrl + Enter – Return after the final line of a chapter to start a new page, regardless of where on the page a chapter ends.) This keystroke method is the same in both Corel WordPerfect and MS Word.

Industry Use: Both non-fiction and fiction books use hard returns to signal chapter breaks. It is the industry standard.

Chapter Start Point: When beginning a new chapter, the point on the page where the first word of text should begin is often a question.

Line Spacing: Word Processors such as Corel WordPerfect and MS Word have the ability to single or double space lines of text. Confusion often occurs about proper line spacing in manuscripts.
Industry Use: Double spacing of manuscripts is the industry standard when submitting to a publisher or an agencies. However, this DOES NOT apply to spacing between paragraphs. Paragraph breaks are NOT quad spaced. ( in other words two double space hard returns) For Paragraph breaks a single hard return is placed between paragraphs, and the indentation of the new paragraph is the reader's guide to where the break occurs.

Manuscript Length: The length of you manuscript (or word count) to determine what term to call a piece of fiction is often confusing to first time writers.
Industry Use: Industry standard for length of manuscript varies by type and genre. Guidelines vary from publisher to publisher. The following word count is a good place to start.

Very, short: Under 2,000 words
Short story: 2,000--7,500 words
Novelette (General Fiction): 7,500--15,000 words
Novelette (SF & Fantasy): 7,500--17,500 words
Novella (General Fiction): 15,000--30,000 words
Novella (SF & Fantasy): 17,500--40,000 words
Novel (General Fiction): 30,000 words
Novel (SF & Fantasy): Over 40,000 words

Margins: Margins on the page of a manuscript page is the distance of space between the edge of the page, top, bottom or sides, to the closest typed letter and or symbol.
Industry Use: Industry standard for page margins is one inch on top, bottom, left or right though some publishers or agents prefer a wider margin on the left and right sides. This is so they can write notes while reading. As a writer your best practice is to seek from any company you plan to submit your work those particular guidelines. The absence of any other guidelines, rely on one inch margins.

Page Numbering: Modern Word Processing software offers the writer the ability to quickly to add page numbering so as to easier keep track while reading. In Corel WordPerfect, this can be found at Format > Page > Numbering. In MS Word, this can be found at Insert > Page Numbers.
Industry Use: Page numbering is recommended for all manuscript submissions. While often not required by publishers or agencies it is preferred for ease of reading and strongly recommend for a professional look.

Line Numbering: Modern Word Processing software offers the writer the additional ability to number the lines of their manuscript. This feature is useful when reviewing your manuscript with an editor. Line numbering make it easy for an editor (who may or may not be in the same town to refer to a problem such as, page 7 line 14

Industry Use: While I have not found an industry standard for this function I never-the-less use it in all my writing for ease of editing.

The Paper Size: Different countries use standard sizes of paper to print manuscripts. In the United States, tour standard size is known as "Letter Size", 8-1/2" wide by 11" long. In the United Kingdom and other European countries, their standard size is "A4", 8.3" wide by 11.7" long.

Industry Use: American publishers or agencies prefer Letter Size paper. If an author is submitting in any country other than the U.S., it is suggested that they check to see the standard size for that country.