I've started doing one of two things. If the chapters are just numbered i do the following: Chapter 2 blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda [body text] or for chapters with chapter titles: Chapter 3 The Chapter Title blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda [body text] So basically what that amounts to is if there is no chapter title i do not skip a line between the chapter number and the body text. If the chapters are titled i do not skip a line between chapter number and chapter title but do skip a line between chapter title and body text. I've done this with the last several Trixie Belden novels I've submitted as well as some others. It seems to work. Natasha & Fossey "Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it's not all mixed up." - A. A. Milne "And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." -Sylvia Plath email: guidingpaws@xxxxxxxxxxx