I know this is going to sound REALLY dumb, but I just can't find the answer to this anywhere, so please be kind. Im working on a book , and the final draft for the first chapter is done. I do plan on querying an agent, so I have to know. Are manuscripts just your final draft in manuscript format? OR are they written like a movie script? Character 1: Dialoge (action) Character 2: (action) dialogue Im really not stupid this just confuses me Thanks in advance for your help :] - I don't really like twilight, the only reason I think Meyer is selling them so much is because teenage girls can relate to Bella. - My book isn't boring, believe me. Think fallen angels, vampires, angels, and demons, and add a lot of dark humor to it :] - Thank to everyone whos answered so far !~ I don't plan on querying after only the first chapter. Really, I just wanted to ask ahead of time so I'd know. Curiousity kills me lol I have written in book form, not script form. But I wasnt sure about how the manuscript should be done. Im not writing a play or movie script lol

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Go to amazon.com and select "books", then type in a book name like IT by Stephen King, or Push by Sapphire and look at how those books are written. Scripts and novels are written completely different. But you must study other books in order to see how books are written. Also- just a suggestion- do not study any classics for writing. Classics were written pre-television and you're writing for the technology age readers, so that writing style will clash. Read Blake Nelson's Destroy All Cars and Paranoid Park. Read Author Golden's Memoirs Of A Geisha. Read Push by Sapphire Middlesex by Jeffrey Eunides (these are just private examples) And Yes, read Twilight. People laugh but this woman is outselling all of the books I've just mentioned. She is a great "storyteller" above all else, which is the most crucial part of writing the novel. You can be the best writer ever but if your story is boring, no one will care anyway and your book will get tossed. edit- Try to get with a writer's group so they can give you feedback on your manuscript before you submit it (after you re-write it in the proper format). Maybe depending on the genre you're writing, you can join a group like that- romance writers group, horror writer's group, crime writer's group, or whatever. Check your library or bookstore for info.

You don't need to worry about querying anyone until your final draft for the entire novel is done. No agent will be interested in a new author who hasn't completed the book they are trying to sell - far too many people never finish. Your final draft for a book manuscript is the book itself. No, they are not like a movie script.

I guess it's one of those things that's not written down anywhere, because everybody assumes everyone knows it. If you're writing a book, it should read like a book. If you're writing a movie script, it should read like a movie script. People who read books don't want to read a script, so if you wrote a book like that, you'd just be making for somebody who would have to turn it into a novel. Also, don't query an agent with just your first chapter written. Finish the book, edit it and polish it, and generally make it as good as you know how. Then send out your queries. Agents can take ages to make up their minds to ask for your book, but when they do, they want it right away. If you send out queries for an unfinished book, Murphy's Law says you'll catch an agent in the one week of the year when he has nothing else to do, and he'll want to see the full manuscript tomorrow. If you have to tell him it's not finished yet, he'll assume he's wasting his time with you, and will go on to the next query in his inbox. Another thing - most people find it's not a good idea to edit a novel as you go along. If you try, you'll get bogged down trying to make every chapter perfect before starting the next one, and it will take much longer that way. It's better to do a rough draft of the whole thing, and then edit it in one pass afterwards. You get a much better idea of how the whole thing fits together, and can easily see what needs to be cut out before you spend days trying to make it word-perfect. (I wandered some way off-topic there... sorry.)