Style Sheet: A Decision Map for Consistency
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Have you ever been knee-deep in a scene and had to look back to find out how you spelled your protagonist's neighborhood? Only to realize that you spelled it two different ways. Or have you looked up the same word no less than five times before remembering what you decided to go with?
There is a level of organization and consistency that writers don’t think about in the initial sweep of words. And you shouldn’t, it’s too early. But eventually, you realize that there is some tracking that’s needed.
Eh, tracking. I know. But this doesn't have to be lame, it can be helpful and save you time and embarrassment.
There’s nothing worse than turning your manuscript over to an agent only to realize that you spelled your main character’s last name two different ways in the submission. Or worse, you self-published and your readers noticed.
If the writing is good, most agents will overlook it (readers are a bit tougher). However, avoiding these mistakes takes your writing up a level. It shows you’re a professional. And there is one simple, customizable tool that can help—a style sheet.
What’s a style sheet?
A style sheet can take many forms based on its uses and audience, but for writers, it can be what you need it to be. A cheat sheet.
A style sheet created by editors for authors or publishers often includes an overview of style rule exceptions, points of interest for a layout artist (i.e. italics, lists, tables, images, etc.), and a terms section showing the proper capitalization, hyphenation, and spelling of words in the book. For fiction, this can be taken further to show the intended spelling of character names and places. This is especially useful in sci-fi or fantasy novels.
In the simplest terms, a style sheet is a list of words and the rules about how they should be treated to ensure a consistent reading experience. I like to call it a decision tracker.
Why Should Writers Use a Style Sheet?
A style sheet keeps writers (and all the folks who touch their manuscripts) from going off the rails. It ensures consistency in the story and reduces errors. Writers have so many things to keep in their heads while crafting a story, and this simple tracking tool helps you efficiently document each little decision you make.
A style sheet can keep writers, and anyone they rely on, consistent in how they treat the words they use, how they format certain punctuation, and the clarity of important details about their story that make it authentic. They can be especially useful across a series of books to ensure consistency from book to book.
No writer wants to find a reader’s comment after publication that says the author doesn't even know how to spell their own character’s names. It’s happened, I’ve seen it. Even smaller hiccups are often caught by readers. When an author changes the hair or eye color of their protagonist halfway through, whether intentionally or by accident, it needs to be consistent in the end. That means clean up. And it can take a long time if you did not keep an ongoing record of your decisions.
Even if you are looking to traditionally publish, think about treating your book and brand as a business. Would a business want to deliver work with characters’ names spelled in multiple different ways, or an old character name lingering in the revised version? Of course not, it would look unprofessional, like they hardly gave their work a second look.
So put your best foot forward by using the simple tools at your disposal.
How to Use a Writer’s Style Sheet?
A style sheet can be customized to fit what you need to keep track of in your process. My advice is to start from a template (like the one I added for download at the end of the post) and then modify it to the areas you think you will have notes. You can use this while writing your first draft but don’t let it stop your flow. It is probably best used as you begin to revise your first draft. But everyone’s process is different.
Once you create your style sheet, record your characters’ names. Make a note of who they are and their distinguishing features—not a paragraph just a few notes (eye color, height, whatever is unique about them that will stand out to a reader). Record place names and any details that could be important in maintaining consistency.
You also should add any term you looked up or made a decision about. For instance, I often look up words that I know have multiple spellings or that I’m not positive about. Let’s say the word gray to describe the sky. Now there is “gray” and “grey,” and once Merriam-Webster clears it up for you, you know which choice is best. Chicago Manual of Style tends to prefer the first listed variant. If you are in the US, the more common choice is gray (unless it is the character’s name). So now, you would record your discovery on your style sheet in the terms section. This will save you from a) misspelling it again or at least help you to catch it in the revisions, and b) keep you from looking it up six more times.
Write down anything you decided to capitalize that maybe is not standard or that you will forget. Anything that you think could end up inconsistent later, capture it. Are you writing fantasy or sci-fi? If so you probably had to make up a whole slew of words and places. Write those down so the spelling never varies.
Here are some more specific things you can include on your style sheet:
Spelling out numbers from zero to a hundred
Any special style usage (i.e. italics for internal speech in third-person limited POV or do you hate the serial comma)
Style of punctuation (i.e. no spacing before or after an em dash or the spacing you used in an ellipsis)
Character and place names
Any made-up words or varied spellings
Abbreviations and what they stand for
Hyphenation of words
Rules that you consistently forget
Any word you looked up to confirm, so you don't have to look it up again
Important dates
You can record any or all of these types of decisions you make along the way. It is way easier than trying to remember months later what you decided.
I like to keep my style guide open in the background while I’m writing. I jot down a character name or something I didn't know how to spell that I looked up. Sometimes I just scribble new terms and info on a notebook and add them to my style sheet after I’ve left my writing groove.
In an ideal world, we want this document to stay scannable. Typically a good format can help with this, especially if you section out your details and alphabetize things. (I mean Word will do it all for you if you look up how). The template I added below also has a nice side navigation feature to denote sections, so you can easily jump around. (You can find this by clicking the navigation pane checkbox in the ribbon under view.) But if your style sheet gets a little unruly, you can rely on the find tool (more talk on that later).
And remember style sheets are living docs; they morph and change based on what’s needed. Don’t be afraid to add, delete, and change it as you move through your process.
Simple Checks to Save Face
In the revision process, you can use the style sheet in two ways.
One, refer to it as you are reading and revising. If something looks off or you are wondering if it is consistent, open your style sheet, check, and make changes as you go.
Two, use it to run final checks for consistency. Open your style sheet and use the find tool in Word or Docs to search the terms, character names, and places you noted within your manuscript. The find tool can be accessed in both Word and Google Docs by using the CRTL + F function. In both programs, a search bar will appear for you to use, and once you search it will take you through all the instances found.
Not every search is the same, but I will outline how to approach a few common ones and you can get creative on your own searches.
1. Character or place names. If you found that you misspelled your character’s name or you want to ensure you didn’t, then type the most likely combo of letters that you spelled correctly. For instance, let’s say your character’s name is Hailey, but halfway through you decided a different spelling best suited her attitude, so you went with Hailee. How can you test to make sure you got all the differences? Search the letters up until the ones that changed.
In the search box, type Haile. And under options, if you tick the match case box, then the results will be a little more manageable. Go instance-by-instance and see where your spelling is off and correct it. If you are using Word, the left-hand navigation pane that often slides open when you use the CRTL + F function can be useful because it will often list all the instances under the Results heading. This is a nice at-a-glance view to quickly spot the outliers.
2. Capitalization. Just search a word with match case unchecked, and it will find all of the instances and you can decide what should be capitalized and where consistency is needed.
3. Italics or bold. In Word this is simple, however, I’m not privy to how to do this in Google Docs. In Word, open the find tool and click advanced find. When the window opens, click the More button at the bottom left to expand the pop-up. In the last section under Find, click the format drop-down and choose Font. In this window, ignore everything but the style you want, say italics, and click ok. Then use the Find Next button to go through all the results, changing what you wish along the way.
4. Punctuation styling. For this one, you use the find box and enter the punctuation mark. Say an em dash. Then you can find all the instances and check the spacing. In Word, it is usually good to click the Show Formatting Marks button (looks like a paragraph mark) in the ribbon under Home. It will specify each space with a dot for you, so it is easy to see any differences. You can also use the find and replace tool to quickly fix different ellipsis or to get rid of extra spaces. For instance, add two spaces in the find box and only one in the replace box and hit replace all. The system will automatically replace all double spaces with a single one. Be careful: sometimes this needs to be run more than once if you were reckless with the space bar.
These are not the only ways you can use your style sheet and the find tool to do final checks of your work but they should give you a starting point.
I often hear authors say well I hire a copy editor for the style sheet, and that is perfectly fine. However, if you handed your editor a style sheet it would allow them to reduce the number of questions they had for you and let them focus more on finding other inconsistencies or considerations. If an editor already knows that you purposely spelled a few words using a less preferred variant and how you preferred to format certain elements, then they are laser-focused on making sure a) those are consistent and b) finding any other outliers or things for you to consider based on the standards of publishing. They may also have more suggestions to bring to the table based on what you have documented. All in all, it makes for a more advanced conversation about your book. It is not a must, but the copy editor would be all smiles to have such an organized author. (And P.S. when you work with a qualified copy editor, they should provide you with a useful and organized style sheet that you can use and build on.)
And if you are trying to self-edit as much as possible, a style sheet will help you find more mistakes in less time. It will become a document that you rely on from the start of your revisions until the very end of proofing.
So keep track of your decisions starting now and avoid letting your readers be ripped from their reading experience by an avoidable mistake. Download the template below and make it your own.
I’d love to hear from you:
Have you used a style sheet before? What did you track? What was most helpful? Share it below.
Good luck and happy editing!
For more tips and in-depth guides on revising your stories, check back for more posts.
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