Choosing the correct font and format for whatever writing project you are working on, can be a crucial and deciding factor as to whether or not it’s accepted. Often, fonts determine length and that is essential for screenplays and scripts. Novels, screenplays, stage scripts and short stories are put to paper in certain ways and this is fairly standard. A good look around should give you a sense of what should go where. 
 
Screenplays and scripts for the stage should have  a one and a half inch margin on the left (to allow for three hole punching and then brads) and a one inch on the other three sides. Courier or Courier New 12 point font is the standard one to use.
 
Novels should have one inch margins all around, current popular font is Times New Roman 12 point (it looks good as an E book also), and be double spaced.
 
Short Stories should use Times New Roman 12 point, one inch margins all around, and be single spaced.
 
Articles should use Times New Roman 12 point.

Margins are usually one inch all around and they have an opening paragraph of two or three sentences, three middle paragraphs and a closing paragraph. This applies to the average 450-500 word article. Shorter and longer articles are “custom” formatted to suit the need regarding number and length of paragraphs and whether or not they are SEO oriented or feature type articles. 
 
As with any writing project you create, grammar, spelling, punctuation, style, possible use of a thesaurus and creativeness are very important. If you need help on your first project or two, seek out the assistance of another writer, or an editor. They will show you how to polish and re-polish your writing, until it absolutely stands heads above the rest. 
 
If you can present your first projects in the best possible light (and every one after that too, of course) then this will give you confidence to keep on writing, and people will want to look at, purchase, or publish your work.