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Make your own style guide: Editor's Notes #412 March 13, 2024 |
| Hello, —Adam Savage In this issue: 1. Make your own style sheet 2. Tickled my funny bone 3. Interesting Web site 4. Writing prompt 1. Make your own style sheet The last issue of Editor’s Notes gave a brief look at commonly used style guides. You can make your own style sheet to stay consistent within your own text. Using it wisely results in a more professional presentation and endears you to potential publishers. Remember that a style sheet’s job is to serve as a reference to keep you consistent in a variety of areas. What you put on your own style sheet is, or course, up to you. Here are some suggestions. First, understand that your style sheet is a living document. You will want to add to it, so I suggest using a format that allows for clean additions. A digital document is easy to edit. If you prefer a hard copy, consider a notebook with sections or a three-ring binder or duo-tang so you can add pages where you need them when you need them. Decide what sort of information you need and decide how to organize it so it works for you. I like to keep track of standards from commercial style guides that I am likely to forget. I also add any new standards I become aware of as I write. (Often editors tell writers about troublesome habits. A note about each of those might be one section of your style sheet.) Information on formatting is helpful: margins; how to set up paragraphs and illustrations; fonts and sizes for body of the text, headlines, captions, etc.; whether you will use straight or curly quotes, how to create them and how to correct them individually or globally with one keystroke. Note spelling issues if you have them. Note words you may confuse with each other, keeping a definition and example of each. Keep track of characters, places, and the timeline. The characters and places can go beyond simple spelling, although it’s really important that Gerry in the first chapter has not turned into Jerry in the fifth. A short list of other details about characters keeps you from confusing your readers: hair and eye colors, speech peculiarities, habits, age, favourite color, animal, subject in school, anything that you may forget. This section in particular needs to be able to expand as you write. While anyone can benefit from making a style sheet for a writing project, those who hope or expect to write more than one book or article, especially a series, are likely to need it most. =========== 2. Tickled my funny bone A good line edit is its own reword. =========== 3. Interesting Web site How many of the words on this list should be on your style sheet? https://www.thoughtco.com/homonyms-homophones-and-homographs-a-b-1692660 =========== 4. Writing prompt It’s easy to confuse some words with other words that sound or look the same. Choose words from the list on Interesting Web site above and write a piece using as many of them as you like. I would love to see your result. =========== Join Writer's Helper Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WritersHelperEditor Follow me on Twitter @AudreytheEditor Link on LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/in/audreyowen (Email me first so I know how you know me.) =========== If you know a writer who would appreciate receiving Editor's Notes, forward this issue. If someone has passed this on to you, you can get your own free subscription by signing up at https://www.writershelper.com/newsletter.html |
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