Creating a Personal Style Guide

 

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethspanncraig.com

Creating a personal style guide can be really helpful when you’re writing in series. It was something that Penguin did for me when I wrote for them (to make sure I stayed on track throughout the series), and I found it useful enough to continue after I started self-publishing.

A style guide is different from a story bible or character bible. While your story bible tracks characters, relationships, and plot events, your style guide focuses on the mechanical and technical aspects of your writing.

Why Create a Personal Style Guide?

Creating a personal style guide solves a few different problems at one time:

Consistency: Readers notice inconsistencies even when they can’t pinpoint exactly what bothers them. A style guide ensures your character who drank coffee “every morning” in book one isn’t suddenly a lifelong tea drinker in book three.

Efficiency: When you document your style decisions, you avoid repeatedly solving the same problems.

Professional Presentation: Consistency signals professionalism to readers, reviewers, and industry professionals.

Mechanical Elements for Your Style Guide

Here are mechanical aspects I track in my style guide that have saved me lots of time:

Punctuation Choices:

Whether to use the Oxford/serial commaEm dash or en dash preferences (and with/without spaces)Ellipsis formatting (three dots or the ellipsis character; spaces or no spaces)

Capitalization Standards:

Title capitalization style (which words get capitalized in chapter titles)Treatment of place names (Downtown vs. downtown)Fictional organizations, businesses, and eventsTime periods and eras (the Sixties vs. the sixties)

Number Formatting:

Time expressions (2:30 p.m. vs. 2:30 PM vs. half past two)

Formatting Choices:

Italics usage (for emphasis, thoughts, foreign words?)Bold text applications (chapter headings only? scene breaks?)How to format text messages, emails, or letters within your narrativeScene break indicatorsChapter heading style and numbering

Spelling Preferences:

Variant spellings (toward vs. towards, etc.)Compound words (makeup vs. make-up, healthcare vs. health care)Treatment of foreign wordsRegional dialect spellings for consistency

Technology and Modern Elements:

How to handle brand names (iPhone or smartphone?)Social media platform referencesTreatment of app names and digital terminologyHandling of text messages and digital communication

Special Cases:

Recurring unusual terms unique to your story worldConsistent handling of slang or vernacularFormat for internal thoughtsHandling of flashbacks or dreamsTreatment of letters, notes, or documents within text

The key is creating a system that works for you. My style guide is a Word document.

Style Guides for Collaboration

For indie authors who work with different editors across a series, a comprehensive style guide ensures consistency regardless of who handles each book.

Do you maintain any kind of style guide for your writing? What elements have you found most helpful to document?

Discover how creating a personal style guide can streamline your writing process, strengthen your voice, and eliminate unnecessary decision-making:: #WritersTips #WritingLife
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