Oh yes, I’ll admit it.  I’m a dirty double-spacer, and everytime I hit a full stop, it’s automatically followed with a rapid tap-tap! of that big key on the bottom.  I’ve been typing like this since forever, the practise instilled into me during typing class at high school (yes, I did this, and yes, I was the only boy).  By all accounts this was a standard business practice, even during the early-mid 90s, and some folks in the class questioned this.  Not only was it part of the curriculum, it was in all the style guides and text books, and religiously adhered to.  So, when we all learned to type without looking at the keys, we also had the double-tap drummed into us, much like the protagonist in Zombieland.  And this was in the era where PCs were already widely in use, and the nascent internet was just kicking off, so I’m not a crusty old typewriter fetishist (okay, I’m that too, but that’s a revelation for another day).  I honestly didn’t even hear about the “OMG how dare they double-space” brigade until a few months back.

So yeah, nowadays some publishers are requesting that the extra space go the way of the dodo, and it’s even occasionally in the submission guidelines.  I’m pretty sure WordPress takes the space out, to protect me from myself, and I’m starting to run a Find+Replace before submitting my fiction to markets, replacing all instances of two spaces with one space.  It’s just another thing to think about, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that it’s a bugbear for many folks, and I just have to take a concrete pill and harden up.

But…I don’t see what the big deal is.  Some folks see that extra space and assume that I also kick puppies and push old people down the stairs.  The double-space is completely invisible to me, and I personally never notice these supposedly horrific gaping chasms of white space in the average manuscript (which is *already* double-spaced vertically, with tonnes of room for comments and editorial jottings).

I’ll do it, but I think it’s bloody pedantic and I don’t mind saying so.