We all know hiring a professional editor can be an expensive proposition. So finding ways to help your editor save time in editing your book is a good thing.
I can’t take credit for today’s idea. I learned this tool from author and publisher Mark Gilroy at a Heart of America Writers Conference I attended several years ago.
It’s a tool every writer should consider using because it’s tremendously useful for your editor and can save the editor a lot of time and work.
What is that tool?
A style sheet.
What is a style sheet?
A style sheet itemizes specifics in your story.
- Information about your major and minor characters
- names,
- nicknames,
- ages,
- physical descriptions and
- personalities.
- Story places—does your main character live in Coffeyville or Coffeeville?
- Slang, idioms, and jargon you use and what they mean
- Are there important dates in your story? List them.
- Cultural references
- Abbreviations you use and what they mean
- Time elements
- Do you quote other material? Include a source list.
- If you write historical fiction, provide a list of source material you specifically reference in your story. (Who’d have thought that Mary Todd Lincoln was away on a shopping trip when Abe left for D.C. to be inaugurated? Thank you author Catherine Ulrich Brakefield for the perfect example to illustrate this point.)
- Writing rules you break and why.
An editor would spend time checking, correcting, or marking for your clarification any or all of these items.
A style sheet provides a quick reference for what is correct, saving the editor time in doing his/her work. (Tweet this.) This translates to saving money on your part.
Do you know all these elements of your story? If not, just imagine how confused an editor could get.