#3: Creating a Style Sheet

Note: The style sheet I'm referring to has nothing to do with the web coding trick called Cascading Style Sheets, Style Sheets, or CSS. Please do not confuse the two.

WHAT IS A STYLE SHEET?

A style sheet is a tool professional proofreaders use and one I think should be adopted by all beta readers. It is a list of all words, numbers, phrases, and style choices (items that could be handled in more than one way) that ensures consistency throughout the manuscript. Style sheets for fiction should also include a list of characters' names: spelling of their full names, any pet or nicknames, and relationships to a few of the other characters. Long, multi-chaptered works might need a separate style sheet for each chapter. (I'm still experimenting with this idea.)

Why create a style sheet? To save your beta reader time for one good reason. I once had a beta reader go through my entire document changing "grey" to "gray" because the computer said it was wrong. If I had been using style sheets at the time, "grey" would have been on it as my preferred spelling. Let's not forget about foreign words. Each writer has a preferred way of formatting their titles and headings. For elements that need to follow strict rules (like a character's name or the hyphenation of a word), a style sheet gives the rule to follow so the ones breaking it can be corrected.

Go Head... Proof It! by K.D. Sullivan recommends a table format to fill-in. I changed a few boxes to make it applicable for fiction.

ELEMENTS OF A STYLE SHEET

Character List is a list of all characters with dialogue or are present in the story. Characters Only Mentioned is a list of characters referred to by name. Now you can see in the style sheet for "Domestic Bliss", I didn't fill out who is related to who. If it is a long work with many new characters or if your beta reader is unfamiliar with the fandom universe, a quick explanation makes everything clearer. A character's name might be listed like this for the crossover novel:

1. Zackery James Baker - Allie's younger brother
   
   
   
   • Zack
     
   
   

Abbreviations, Numbers and Dates, Headings, and Punctuation are all to make sure that everything in them is handled the same way. Let's look back at the "Domestic Bliss" example. Most of what fits in these boxes are notes to myself--especially Headings and Punctuation--and issues that my computer questions. My computer always finds words to have issues with. Usually it's just names, but when it's correctly spelt words, the alphabet boxes is where I put them, as well as words like "grey."

Miscellaneous box is for anything that doesn't bit in the boxes above.

Here is a sample style sheet I created in Microsoft Word. The size of the boxes is complete arbitrary; resize as you need.