Paragraph indents – and why you should ditch the tab key

In book publishing, there are certain formatting rules around paragraph indents that writers need to be aware of – but did you know that you shouldn’t use the tab key? Some writers grow up being taught in schools that the tab key is an easy way to create a paragraph indent. But it’s actually not the best way to create paragraph indents in a novel.

In this post, we’ll go over what paragraph indents are, the rules around paragraph indents, how you should format your paragraph indents, and why the tab key is best avoided.

What are paragraph indents?

If you pick up a published novel and glance over the pages, you’ll see small spaces at the start of most paragraphs. That’s the paragraph indent. It pushes the first line of the paragraph away from the left margin. Here’s a visual from one of my own published novels:

You can see the small space at the start of each of the four paragraphs on this page. That’s the paragraph indent.

When do I use paragraph indents?

In book publishing, the general rule is that all paragraphs are indented, except for a few very specific types of paragraph:

Paragraphs that begin a new chapter
Paragraphs that begin a new scene (after a scene break)

These paragraphs should NOT be indented. Instead, they should be what we refer to in publishing as “full out”. This means that there’s no indentation at the start of the paragraph, and that the paragraph is instead flush to the margin. Here is an example from the Sheridan Le Fanu classic In a Glass Darkly:

Paragraph indent examples in fiction – margin examples

The straight red line is positioned to illustrate the margin in this image.

If you look at the first arrow, pointing to the beginning of the very first paragraph, you’ll see it’s flush to the left-hand margin. Why? Because this is the first paragraph in a chapter, meaning it shouldn’t be indented.

If you look at the second arrow, which points to the start of the second paragraph, you’ll see this line is positioned slightly inwards. That’s the paragraph indent – because this is a regular paragraph.

How to apply paragraph indents in your manuscript

The best way to apply paragraph indents yourself is by using the settings in Microsoft Word.

I’ll show you how to do this using an example with some random text.

First, you’ll want to select all the text. If you’re writing a novel it’s very important to select everything so the changes apply everywhere. This will also be the most time-efficient process. You can use Control + A (or Command + A if you’re on a Mac like me) to do this:

Then, you can either right click and select the Paragraph option, or you can go to Format > Paragraph. Both methods will bring up the same menu.

In this menu, you’ll want to change the Indentation: Special option to First line. I like to leave it as the default of 1.27cm as this is a good enough size for a paragraph indent. I also changed the Line spacing option to Double as this is standard for book formatting as well:

Once you’ve done that, press OK.

The changes will be applied. You can now deselect the text by clicking anywhere in the text or by pressing a directional arrow key. This is what the text will look like:

Now, as you can see, there are a few issues here! Remember our rules for making paragraph indents?

Paragraphs at the start of a chapter or scene shouldn’t be indented. So we need to manually remove those.

Click before the text in the first paragraph of the chapter, so the cursor is positioned before the first word (“This”). Then press the backspace key. The indent will be removed:

There is another problem: our chapter heading is now indented! We don’t want that. So we repeat the same process. We place the cursor before the first word (“chapter”) and press the backspace key:

You can now either centre the chapter heading or leave it aligned to the left.

You’re probably thinking this might be a pain to do for an entire novel-length document. But if you have chapter headings, you can simply do a global search for the word “chapter” to allow you to more quickly jump between chapter headings so you can carry out this process.

You can do the same with paragraphs that come after a scene break. In this example, the three asterisks mark the scene break. Simply position the cursor before the first word of the scene and press the backspace key:

You will also have to repeat a similar process to your chapter headings with the scene break markers. Make sure these markers are not indented by left-aligning them first, positioning your cursor before the first asterisk, and hitting the backspace key. You can re-centre them afterwards (scene break markers belong in the centre).

This is why it can be helpful to use asterisks or other useful markers for scene breaks, as you can then use a global search to jump around to them.

Why you should avoid using the tab key to create paragraph indents

As an editor, I work on a lot of manuscripts, and I see authors using the tab key to create paragraph indents all the time! Usually, it’s because they learnt this process in school, because it’s quick and easy to do, or it’s leftover logic from using typewriters. It’s always something I have to manually tidy up for the author.

You might be wondering why you should avoid the tab key.

The issue with using the tab key to create paragraph indents is that it can create inconsistent formatting or formatting issues, especially if you’re moving a manuscript file between different devices or software. If you convert your files into formats like PDFs or EPUBs, issues may also arise. And that can be a huge problem if you create your own ebooks!

The tab key usually does not translate well into most ebook formats or onto ereader devices, and it can cause a lot of issues including broken book layouts and uneven spacing.

If you’re planning to submit to literary agents or publishers, using the tab key to create indents can make your manuscript look unprofessional and amateur-ish. It isn’t the industry-standard method. It could also make your process look dated (or as though you aren’t familiar with new tech) because it was the method originally used with typewriters.

If you hope to submit your manuscript to literary agents, learning to format your paragraphs using the professional standard described above is a must.

Another factor to consider is that the tab key can make it harder to edit or revise your manuscript later if you choose different formatting options. Having to remove every tab manually can be tedious.

Using Word’s settings to create paragraph indents is a much better option. It’s a process that’s less prone to errors and can help you to avoid janky layouts in ebooks or across devices. It’ll also make your manuscript appear more professional.