#10 in an occasional series on writing non-fiction
This week’s blog looks at creating a Style Sheet, which is something authors of both fiction and non-fiction books should consider.
It is worth creating a Style Sheet as you begin drafting your book. Some publishers will have their own which they will supply, but you should otherwise create your own. When I was a museum director, I culled style sheets from several other museums and a newspaper I once worked for to create a House Style. This ensured that the dozen curators and other staff writing museum text followed best practice in the museum world and had a consistent style. It also created a base line for me as I edited their work prior to it being seen by the public. For example:
Dates: 14 August, 14th August, August 14 or August the 14th?
Events: The First World War, World War One, WW1 or The Great War?
Capitalisation; King George V certainly, but ‘the King’ or ‘the king’?
Not starting sentences with But, And, Also etc.
Use of italics, for example referring to ships HMS Victory, books The Lord of the Rings, foreign words not in common English usage such as bocage.
Using single ellipses, for example when referencing slang or jargon like the so-called ‘culture wars’. You may decide to do this only the first time the phrase is used to avoid littering you text with ellipses. It should in any case be done sparingly.
Using double ellipses for a direct quotation; “We shall fight them on the beaches.”
And so forth.
You should take a decision on whether you will routinely use the serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma. In a previous blog we also discussed the disruptive effect of punctuation such as exclamation marks and brackets, and you might want to decide how often, if at all, you are going to use them.
There are conventions for such things, but these can vary from publisher to publisher, particularly across the Atlantic. You will benefit from owning an appropriate reference book such as the Chicago Manual of Style or The New Oxford Style Manual (building on the original Hart’s Rules). If you employ a professional editor, they will certainly own one or both of these books. A number of websites exist to assist you, but they are not always consistent and some put emphasis on American rather than British conventions so should be used with care.
Magazine style sheets often call for the use of active verbs versus passive ones. This creates livelier, more engaging writing. For example:
‘The dockers unloaded the ship,’ (the dockers are active), not:
‘The ship was unloaded by the dockers,’ (the ship is passive).
Magazine editors also prefer concrete nouns—things you can touch, feel, smell, taste or hear—rather than abstract nouns which cannot be perceived through the five senses.
‘A fort guarded the hill.’ We can touch both the fort and the hill.
‘Fortifying the locality offered protection.’ We can’t touch protection or locality.
Tabloid newspapers offer very good examples of how to write to a format and bring complex subjects before the general reader. It’s not the easy gig it may seem; some of the best-paid journalists in the country write for tabloids.
Deliberate choice of language puts power into what is being written. Consider Churchill:
“…we shall fight them on the beaches,”
not
“…landings on the beaches will meet opposition,”
It is we that are going to fight them, the invaders, and we are going to do it on the first beach they set foot on. There is not going to be some vague show of force by someone or other at some indeterminate time.
Your personal style sheet could be two to three pages long and specific to the book you are writing. If you are editing a collection of work by individual authors, create a style sheet at the outset so everyone is writing to a similar template. Keeping to your style sheet creates a neater product which is easier for the reader to follow and helps eliminate jarring inconsistencies. It will make your book more professional, help it be better reviewed and readers should enjoy it more.
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