I love fonts. Let’s just throw that out there. I have a degree in magazine journalism, and one of the requirements of my editing course was that we had to memorize the MS Office font library. Seriously, there was a test with a bunch of words typed out in random fonts that we had to identify. Not to brag or anything, but I rocked the crap out of that test. That’s just how I roll. I never would have thrived in a major that required me to stare at numbers or memorize the genuses of things, but distinguishing Copperplate Gothic Light from Perpetua? I own that.
I went through a major Papyrus phase in college. I used that font EVERYWHERE. And then when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban came out, and there was that scene where the Marauder’s Map is writing notes to Snape, I became obsessed with Bradley Hand. And, side note, how cool is it when books change fonts?!?
Man, this is embarrassing. My lameness is just shining right on through. You’re probably like, “What is all this? Didn’t she mention something about a writing tip?” And yes I did.
I write all of my first drafts in Courier New. It’s big and easy to see on the screen. Anyone who’s ever had to a write a 10-page paper that ends on page 8 knows about the old “just switch it to Courier New” trick — BAM! Automatic 10 pages! Anyhow, I write in Courier New, then do a read through in Courier New, make my edits, read it through again, etc. etc. And then, just when I think it’s perfect — here’s the magic — I switch the entire document into Times New Roman and read it through again. It’s like reading a whole new MS, and I always always always find errors I missed the first few times.
So give it a whirl. I like the Courier/Times New Roman combination because they’re both standards of the industry, but use whatever you’re comfortable with. Heck, throw it into Harrington or Monotype Corsica if you want. Just make sure you switch it back to Courier or Times New Roman when you’re done. Submitting a MS all in Wingdings is one sure way to get a form rejection faster than you can say “Garamond.”
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