Professionally known as aStyle Sheet.
I’m not referring to a list of what matches what hanging in your closet.
Or the hottest trends from InStyle Magazine.
No, this is a document where you define the writing style and rules that apply to your WIP.
- Is the style of your WIP American or British English?
- Do you use contractions? (This is one of my problems. Sometimes I feel like a contraction sometime I don’t.)
- Are you going to spell out the numbers or not?
See where I’m going? Finding these errors first is very important to presenting quality work to an editor that you’ve done some of your own redline editing.
I call mine a cheat sheet. Some writers use an electronic file folder, others like Scrivener’s templates to help with character info to keep the story uniform.
But, now that I understand the importance of an actual Style Sheet is, I’m going to streamline the process…
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I’ve not used a style sheet but I can see the value. My book series was recently picked up by a US publisher but was written primarily for a UK audience. I had to evaluate what would work and what my style was as the marketing is broadening the audience. Thinking about these issues in advance would be helpful – not just from the perspective of working with an editor but also in considering your audience and whether your style and language will hit the mark. While we as writers want to preserve and protect our vision, you still have to sell books.
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