Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
If you’ve been writing novels for long, you may have come across the challenge of keeping the details straight so that you can be consistent throughout the book. If the hero has blue eyes in chapter 1, he shouldn’t have green eyes in chapter 14. If your characters live on 5th Street in one chapter, they shouldn’t later live on Fifth Street. But how do you keep track of these things without having to simply rely on your memory?
You could create an Editorial Style Sheet. This is what editors do when they line-edit and/or copyedit your book. It’s ultimately their responsibility to see that everything is as correct and consistent as possible throughout your book, so as they’re editing, they write down details; names of people, places, businesses and all proper nouns; strange spellings; and style rules that will apply to your manuscript.
Your style sheet doesn’t need to be too detailed, but a simple one that you create as you write or revise could help you define and keep track of the elements that are important to you.
When editors create style sheets, they usually include the following elements:
1) A list of some important style rules that will be followed throughout the manuscript. Whether or not they conform to CMS or AP, the important thing is consistency and a pleasant reading experience. So this section will address things like whether or not the serial comma is used; under what circumstances kinship or pet names (“mama” or “sweetheart”) are capitalized or lowercased; whether inner thoughts are set in italics or roman type; rules for whether to spell out numbers or use numerals; and countless other issues that come up in editing.
2) The book’s setting—time frame and location on the map.
3) A list of all the places and street names, to insure consistency in spelling and capitalization. For instance, is it Babies ‘R’ Us… or Babies R Us? Is it Wal-Mart? WalMart? Walmart?
4) A list of all the characters with the correct spellings of their names. (You’d be amazed how often a writer spells their own hero’s name three different ways dozens of times throughout a book.) For the main characters, this list also includes pertinent details like age, relationship to another character (i.e. “wife of John”), hair color, eye color, height and any other available information.
5) Names of any animals in the book.
6) A long list of words whose spellings could be easily mistaken or challenged. For example, “blonde” and “blond” are typically confused and the rules for usage have evolved over the years. A nicely edited manuscript requires a rule so the word is spelled consistently, i.e. blonde for female and blond for male; or blonde for noun and blond for adjective. Sometimes a word is only used once, but is included in the style sheet to show that an intentional decision has been made to go with a certain spelling; or to show that the spelling has been verified through an external source (i.e. “Walmart” is verified by the company’s website.)
Obviously you don’t have to go to all this work—the editor will do it later, and most likely you’ll never even see it. But there are a couple of reasons you may want to keep a style sheet for your book:
→ You want to keep track of details that are important to you so you’ll be consistent.
→ You want to deliver it to your publisher along with your manuscript so that the editor doesn’t change things for which you’ve already made intentional decisions.
Even if you never use a formal style sheet, hopefully this opens your eyes to the detailed scrutiny your manuscript will someday undergo.
Q4U: Do you have any system for keeping track of details in your manuscript?
Jeanne T
Thanks for sharing this, Rachelle. How helpful. I have a hand written log of certain things, like what kinds of cars my characters drive (since they come up a number of times in the story), a list of secondary/peripheral characters, and minor details like that.
I think making a chart that includes the items you mentioned here would be so helpful. Thanks for sharing this today!
Michelle Ule
Never occurred to me to do this, but I usually pick up errors like this on the first, or second read.
Of course I’m still finding typos on the fifth read, sigh!
Caroline @ UnderGod'sMightyHand
I’m not a novelist, but I find this post useful, too. Keeping track of details, dates, and references seems like only a good idea.
This is a great point: “You want to deliver it to your publisher along with your manuscript so that the editor doesn’t change things for which you’ve already made intentional decisions.” My first thought was it’s like a “birth plan” you hand to nurses at the delivery room… some important decisions were made ahead of time! 🙂
Richard Mabry
Having just been through this recently when an editor created a style sheet, I decided to make what I always called “notes” a bit more detailed and deliver them to the editor next time. Great information here.
Joanne Sher
I have never done this, but it sounds RIGHT up my alley! THANK you.
Tonya
I don’t have any tips but I just started editing my first novel and have found myself confused and overwhelmed. This was helpful, thanks!
Lindsay Harrel
Ah, the style sheet! As an editor in my day job, I’ve made frequent use of these. Great suggestions, Rachelle!
Jennifer Major
I’ve done this ever since I started writing for a newspaper. Facts and fact checking are things I obsess about, after reading a few books that were either loose with the facts, or completely wrong.
That said, I love getting itty bitty details to slide into the story!!
After wandering around Flagstaff and learning that Babbitt’s was a huge mercantile and sold just about anything, that can go in the book and sweeten the story world. I could tell you that from one end of the rail platform to the other, to right where the building ends, is 91 paces. And the track curves right before it arrives in the town. Oh, and the platform is brick, not wood.
This is all in the notebook and will get put in the E-file when get home.
That’s all going in a file that Mizz Christina Berry urged me to keep, along with all the other Author Notes that either masquerade as back story or help fill the information void.
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Being able to physically research a location is a treasure! I’m glad that you are having a good experience. 🙂
Christina Berry
What? Did I say that? 🙂 I’m smarter than I look!
Jennifer Major
I believe you said “all this (back story, information, etc) can go in a file named Author Notes”.
You said that and “I want more chocolate, send me more Dairy Milks!!”
Jennifer Major
Oh, and you also said “Jennifer Major rocks like no one I’ve ever met in the history of the free world.”
Okay, fine.
You *may* not have said the part about chocolate.
Sarah Sundin
My publisher asks for character descriptions when I turn in my ms, so I keep a running character chart, which is really useful when I’m writing a series.
I have columns for name (including nicknames and what other characters call them – Dad? Papa? Father?), role in story (job, position, dates these change), family (married to…2nd child of…), age/birthday (really helpful in a series), physical description, and other. The “other” column is useful for any quirk that might show up later – is she an alto or soprano? Does he smoke? Date of military promotion? Injuries? I’d better not have her cradle her right wrist in chap.1 and her left in chap. 3 – likewise I have to watch to make sure healing proceeds 🙂
This little chart saves me gobs of headaches.
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Very smart, Sarah. Your example about the wrist reminded me of the story about a Sherlock Holmes’ novel that had Watson hurt one leg in one chapter and then later limp on the wrong leg. Also, I’ve taught Great Expectations, which Dickens wrote in installments for a magazine. He apparently didn’t keep notes as there are numerous inconsistencies. My high school freshman noticed on their own that Pip is six, then has turned nine years old even though only one year has past. Oops!
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Oops for me too. I meant “only one year has passed.”
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
I am obsessive-compulsive, so I keep lists of everything. I even have details that will never end up in the novels.
The psychological mystery is complex so I have a portfolio of information on the characters, their families, histories, likes / dislikes, hobbies, phobias. The two main characters co-own a nine-company corporation, so I have a list of each company’s name, purpose, CEO and logo.
For the YA fantasy, keeping lists is even more important because I’ve created a world with unusual names and types of beings. I have a list of each character’s name. Also I have a list of place names. Early on, I drew a map of the places so that I knew where each was located. This is helpful now as the main character travels around. It will become vital at the climax of the book as she tries to escape from the villain and is pursued by him. I need to know not only how she gets home (the path she takes) but how each place aids or hurts her. For example, Dragonsword Forest has numerous dangerous beings living in it, but it also provides places to hide. She is being pursued by a dragon who will have some difficulty seeing her in the dense forest. Early in the book, Silverleaf Meadow seems like a serene, safe place, but it will become the most dangerous place for Siobhan as she tries to get home. It is the center of The Five Lands, so she MUST cross it to get home, but going into the meadow puts her out in the open and makes her vulnerable–easy to see and attack. So knowing about the placement and landscape of each of the places has helped me with the plotting of the book.
Making lists also is necessary for the fantasy novel because there is a magical world and a human town. The magical beings who live in the Five Lands have different words for things than the humans do. They call themselves the Cinn-gnath (derived from the Irish for “normal ones”) and the humans Cinn-gan (“those without”). They call their land Cu Tailte. Siobhan calls her parents Maeda and Daedi. There are many other such details. I have to keep lists just so that I know how to spell the words and what each thing or person is called in the language of the Cu Tailte.
One of my writing tasks for today, in all honesty, is to draw a picture of Siobhan’s friend, Aisling Thistlewraith, so that I can describe her. She is a tree spirit, so she looks a bit unusual. I have ideas of what I want to say about her, but I need to see those ideas in concrete form to see if my description results in the beautiful girl I’m intending or if the details would create a hideous-looking creature.
As I said, I own being obsessive-compulsive, but I do think that visualizing by drawing and keeping lists of details helps me to write more effectively.
Kay Elam
Thanks for the post. It is very handy.
Until recently, I kept an Excel spreadsheet. On the master tab, I listed each chapter and it’s plot points along with a columns for word count, setting/time of day, and whose POV the chapter was in.
The spreadsheet also had a tab for each major character and one tab for all minor characters. Full descriptions were on each tab. There was a tab was for ideas, another for setting descriptions, one for links to save, etc.
This worked, but was cumbersome as I was constantly flipping from tab to tab.
I tried Scrivener for MAC during their free trial period for NaNoWriMo last year. I didn’t write in it–didn’t take time to figure it out–but it was so easy to figure out how to set up characters, scenes, make notes, plot, etc. I could also drag and drop websites to a research tab so I could go back to them later. Loved it!!!
I purchased it when the trial period was over (using the NanoWriMo discount) and have used it ever since. It makes me want to outline! I know I’m not utilizing it to it’s potential–I’ve GOT to view that tutorial! But I love what I can do with it based on my fumbling around.
Sarah Grimm
Great idea. I might actually use this for my critique partners too.
Sarah Thomas
I have a notebook with a page for each character. Birth date, hometown, eye and hair color, odd quirks, talents, etc. I’ll also dedicate a page to settings that I use often (a town, a house, etc.). It not only helps me keep stuff straight, it also lets me see if everyone, say, has blue eyes.
My problem is that I pretty much CAN’T write past a fact I’m not sure of. If I come to a place where I need to mention the name of a town I’m useless until I find the correct name and get it in there. Some people can just plow ahead and come back to it later, but oh, not me!
Anna Moore
That’s a great idea! I make a web that I learned from brainstorming back in the fifth grade. My main character is in the middle, around her is work/friends/family – each with their own webs (if necessary). I might start borrowing your idea, because I’m running out of room!
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Sarah,
Like you, I need to know details. I even to know details that ultimately won’t show up in the novel. It used to be impossible for me to “plow forward” with writing until I got that piece of information settled. The character’s inert form is lying on the carpet in the den. What color is the carpet? It used to be that I couldn’t write any more until I got that decision settled. Now, though, I have learned to put a blank line and keep writing, then work out the detail later. This has helped keep my creative flow from getting blocked. Also, sometimes I spend my writing time just working on details. That helps me later when I sit down to write a scene. Then I already know that the carpet is a pale green.
Morgan Tarpley
I totally can relate, Christine! I am such a distracted person in general, but it seems 10x worse sometimes when I am writing. I recently completed my first manuscript and one of the reasons I was able to finish was that I plowed through it and left blanks behind when needed.
I had already researched a ton before I started writing and preparing my outline, but there are always those tedious details needed while writing scenes. If I hadn’t put the blanks there and moved on, I think I would still have an unfinished manuscript on my hands. You have to let it go and keep going and fill in those holes later. 😀 Great comments on this post!
Thanks Rachelle for the insight into an editor’s world! It is most helpful.
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Exactly Morgan!
Congratulations on completing your manuscript. I wish you tons of success with it.
Sarah Thomas
Christine- Exactly! That darn carpet. Place names just torture me. It’s hard to move on without naming the town the main character’s great Aunt Matilda lives in, but I have the worst time settling on a name! That’s why I love find and replace. Just throw out a name and you can always change it later! Good to know I’m not the only compulsive detailer out there.
Cheryl Malandrinos
Wow! Great information, Rachelle. I have a notebook where I keep character information: physical descriptions, family members, likes and dislikes, etc. I also write up a brief timeline of events. I have never thought to keep track of the setting, but after reading this post, I think bare minimum I’ll create a map of where everything is.
Thanks for the helpful information.
Dean K Miller
In the end it is about the story, and the story succeeds if the details are consistent, and correct.
Great advice and I am incorporating this into my WIP. Should be of great help as I get further along in the story. So much changes, maybe a twist not seen, which changes and aspect of the MC. Best to know what is should be, or go back and change it prior.
Josh C.
Very helpful tip. I never thought about a style sheet, I just tried to remember it, you know, in my head and stuff. That’s worked out somewhat terribly, too. Such a simple answer. Thanks!
Sue Harrison
Thank you Rachelle! I appreciate the ideas. In my first 6 novels everyone had brown eyes and black hair, so it was a lot easier to keep track!
Are editors ever interested in seeing an author’s style sheet or do they prefer to develop their own?
James H Nicholson
I certainly find notes/style sheets useful because I’m memory-challenged. I especially rely on a time-line in Excel so that I can tell immediately how old any particular character is at any particular time. I also include important events so that I don’t have a character just doing his thing and totally ignoring that Pearl Harbor is being bombed or that Kennedy has been assassinated. These are things you can’t always expect an editor to spot.
Knowing what’s going on in the world often creates opportunity. I realized that I had a character in London during the Great Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851) which was “THE” event of the decade. For the character to have ignored it would lose those select readers that would know that fact. And believe me when I say that more people do know than you ever think would know.
More importantly, it gave a wonderful opportunity to have the character share his excitement and impressions of this spectacular exposition with his fiancée back in America.
Lastly, don’t hesitate to use your search function in your word processing program. Current versions of Word have a very nice feature that displays snippets of every time you used the target word or phrase. That’ll give you the correct address and eye color in a heartbeat. It may also reveal a previous time when you got it wrong without questioning it.
Morgan Tarpley
Hi James. I deal with historic facts in my writing too, so I know exactly what you are talking about. 😀 I always print out a detailed historical timeline (from a legitimate source) and follow along closely with it as I plot and write. I don’t want to miss that major event that would not have been ignored in the time period. Thanks for the reminder!
Amanda Stephan
I have a style notebook set up. It really helps as I’m writing a series at the moment. I have so much information, that i have a five subject notebook and use the sections for a particular purpose. The last section is for outlines of future books and ideas. The front section is for characteristics and traits for novels I’m working on at the moment. The interior sections are for character interviews and particular scenes. The very last section is for any brainstorming about the book and what could happen if…type of things.
I think it’s awesome that editors do style sheets. I honestly had no idea!
Dawn Dix
Great post!! At one point, I started keeping track of each day of the week I was on! lol
Robin Patchen
Great tips, Rachelle. I tend to forget details, so I have to have a file with things like hair and eye color, or I’ll certainly have morphing characters in my book. This is much more detailed, and I like it. Thanks!
Peter DeHaan
This is a great idea.
I wished I had made a style sheet for my dissertation. It would have saved me a lot of work and a couple of headaches when proofing it. Plus it would be a helpful tool to have now as I rework it into a book.
Dale Rogers
Good advice–I need to try this. Usually if I have doubts, I use a word search to scan my document so I can compare. The main thing I have to look out for is duplicating or confusing eye/hair color of main characters in different works.
Darby Kern
For my novel …by Design I created an outline on a 18x 36 board (which looks a lot like Joseph Heller’s blotter page outline for Catch-22- something I only saw for the first time last week). On the back I started writing my notes about the characters and relationships and stuff. It turned out to be useful. For a book I’m working on now I bought a larger dry erase board, which is covering up some of the clutter on my desk right now!
I figure I want to be less work for a publisher than the other guy they’re considering that day.
Ann Bracken
I keep a historical timeline, along with references, for the period I’m writing. It includes topography, existing homes, population, religion, etc. This is expanded to include how the homes/religion/population has changed over the period my characters grew up.
I have character bios that include the basics (eye, hair color, etc.), but also a pedigree, major events in their childhood and how they ended up where they are. My villians’ bios include why they are the way they are, written from the POV of their mother (it really works to make them sympathetic!).
Julie Garmon
Very helpful post.
I go through a detailed process of interviewing my main characters including putting them through a Myers Briggs test. Before I start writing, I allow myself time to get to know them. 🙂
I have a clothesline strung in my office with an 8×10 picture of each character. If the eye color isn’t right in the hard copy photo, I fix it. When I’m not sure how he/she will REALLY react in a situation, I stop typing and talk to him/her. They’re right behind me, on the clothesline. 🙂
I’ve stumbled over the Walmart, Wal-Mart, Wal-mart spelling dilemma bunches of times.
Good advice for adding a layer of professionalism to the finished product!
Valerie Comer
I work in Scrivener. Every time I add a detail to the manuscript, I make a note in the research section–either adding a file for a character’s name (and who they are), a pet, or what direction the character turned on main street to get home from work.
It saves me tons of time as it’s so easy and quick to check the facts as I keep moving forward.
Mahala Church
Like so many who have already posted, I began with writing non-fiction (and still do some) where keeping facts straight is very important to the integrity of the piece. Bearing that in mind, I took my natural yen for organization (think OCD) into the fiction world. I keep my notes in a table in alpha order to keep names of the extraneous characters straight. I have another table with my timeline. Then, to shake things up a bit, I track scenes by hand using large stickie notes and a huge roll of white paper that I wrap around a spare room. The stickie notes are really helpful as they can be moved around if a scene or part of a scene needs to be moved to a different place in the chapter or another chapter. All of this has also helped me in my editing business. I’m so used to keeping track of my info, I easily keep track of others’ as I edit.
J.M. Powers
I try to get to “know” each character before I actually write the book. I too find pictures that match the idea of what the character’s look like. This helps me keep the hair & eye color’s straight, their build etc. But I also have notes below each photo about scars or anything else so I remember the details.
I need some sort of timeline, as I usually write historical romances.
A file of all research links are important too. Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a scene and have to check back to see if they used potatoes during the era (or something else as mundane as that) so it helps to keep those links handy.
Outlines help , and though I’ve always been a pantser, I’m trying to adjust to outlining. It seems to be quite a great way to build a road map in a story. There’s been times when I’ve had to go back and rewrite whole chapters because I needed to tell it in a different POV, or I need to go through what I’ve already written to sprinkle little clues to make everything tie together better. I could’ve avoided that and other pitfalls had I used an outline.
I love the ideas you posted, as well as the many pointers in the replies.
Skye Taylor
Thanks for a great post. I keep a notebook for every book I’m working on. I have a section for characters with a CAST page of any character appearing in the story, and a detailed page for each main character with physical description, education, military service, religious affiliation, friends, family, quirks and habits, favorite expressions, personality etc. I’m working on a series now and made a family tree to keep family straight. I sometimes draw a map of imaginary towns and show businesses, streets, dwellings and landmarks. If its a real city I download a map and print it out. If I can, I visit it and take lots of photos. Other sections of the notebook include all the research I’ve done, again including photos and maps etc. now I’m going to add two sections: the style sheet spelling and grammar stuff and a timeline. Both great ideas. Thanks.
JB
Wow, I was already doing this. I win! No, really, it’s been super helpful. I found out one character had two last names, for example. And it’s helpful for choosing which nickname characters use and keeping it consistent.
Rita Stella Galieh
A great reminder,Rachelle. I also have a great book covering the whole world of the 19th century, a time period in which mostly write my novels. It’s been a godsend especially about inventions, buildings, wars, personalities etc.
Laurie Evans
Great idea! I don’t have that many characters, and I thought I’d remember everything, but I’ve had to go back and look up certain details. This would really help.
Sharyn Kopf
Great idea, Rachel! For my current WIP, I’ve only been keeping track of my character names, so far. Not just to help me remember spelling and those rarely used last names but also to make sure I don’t have characters whose names starting with the same letter.
My plan was to make a consistency sheet after the first draft is done because it seems so many things can change during the initial storytelling. For instance, I realized 10,000 words into my current novel that I want to give one of my characters a dog. I also know I might change my mind about last names, eye color, jobs & homes as I get to know the characters better. So it seems better to wait until I’m in the revision stage.
If you have any thoughts on this, I’d love to hear them. Thanks!
Sharyn Kopf
Sorry, Rachelle! This is what happens when I hurry through something & don’t listen to the voice telling me to edit!
Janet McHenry
When I wrote juvenile mysteries, I made a map of the locality and a calendar of what happened at what time on what day of the week.
Susan Baganz
I hadn’t been keeping a style sheet – but am trying to now with some edits because I’m writing a series and sometimes I need to remember the butler or housekeeper from someone else’s home when the new main character decides to go visit! Consistency not only in the current work in progress – but across the series as well! It is a great idea!