Here’s the current Writers’ Mill Style Guide, developed over several years of creating the Writers’ Mill Journal. The aim (for editors) is to edit invisibly.
Step 1 is making the entries “fit” together – so all the text is in “normal,” allowing us to change fonts, sizes, spacing, indentation etc for the whole book, rather than for each entry one by one. Headings are all Heading 3. Notes are all in a carefully chosen style (probably “note” – see Using Word with Style – we can set up our own styles with cool names). Poems likewise, and then… Here’s what our editors will work on:
- Ellipses should have no space before… and one space afterward (like this)…, or a punctuation mark after (but NO PERIODS after ellipses)…
- Why? Because we want Word to be willing to start a new line after the ellipsis but not before it, and we don’t want to have to check by hand for cases that look odd.
- If we ever decide to use “long” ellipses, we can replace the Word ellipses (^i) with unbreakable spaces and periods (^s.^s.^s), but we don’t do that at present.
- Emdashes should have no space before—and no space after.
- Why? It’s fairly standard in US documents (though British ones prefer to use space endash space, which looks like – this).
- Endashes are used to separate numbers and have a space before and after, like ’86 – ’89.
- Apostrophes represent missing letters or numbers.
- Use a single close-quote-mark for an apostrophe, hence ’86, not ‘86.
- Words like the 1800s do not have apostrophes as no letters or numbers are missing.
- Possessives like Sheila’s notes have apostrophes.
- Let the author choose what to do about Alys’s or Alys’ notes, as long as they’re consistent.
- Numbers should be written out from one to ten (except when you’re telling the time) then it’s up to the author, as long as they’re consistent.
- If the author writes fifty in one line, they shouldn’t write 50 on the next
- If the author writes fifteen they should not write 16.
- Time should be told in words, or use 10am, 11:30pm, etc.—no internal periods and no spaces
- Why? because periods and spaces can cause nasty line-breaks, and we’re trying to make things easy.
- Also because systems that read for the visually impaired read periods as pauses and make things confusing.
- Periods in abbreviations: Same reason as above, so
- probably USA rather than U.S.A. as well.
- maybe eg rather than e.g. for same reason (and ie)
- Compound words: Try to be consistent throughout the document. eg:
- overdressed, not over-dressed and not over dressed
- cufflinks, not cuff links
- noncommital, not non-commital
- Italics should be used for emphasis, for internal dialog, and for book titles.
- Why? Because it’s what we chose.
- Single quotes are used for ‘airquotes’, names of poems or plays, etc.
- Why? Because it’s what we chose.
- How? (See below). Remember, punctuation goes outside quotemarks when not quoting dialog
- Bold should be avoided unless there’s a clear reason to use it.
- Why? Because bold stands out more than we want it to in text.
- TEXT IN CAPITALS is sometimes better (less intrusive) than bold.
- Nested dialog: She says, “Double quotation marks should be used in dialog, but my book reminds us, ‘single quotation marks for dialog within dialog.’”
- Why? Modern UK books use single quotes, then double, then triple—very logical, but this is an American book and this is how we choose to do it.
- Dialog punctuation goes within the quote-marks if it’s connected to the dialog, and outside if it’s not connected.
- She asks, “Have you got that?”
- She wonders, “Did he say, ‘I’ve got that’?”
- And did he say, “I’ve got that”?
- Non-Dialog punctuation: This goes outside the quote marks (or apostrophe) if it’s not dialog.
- They went to the ‘big room’.
- The toys were the dogs’.
- Multiple speakers: In general, use a new paragraph for each new speaker in dialog BUT, if the author’s intent to stick to one topic per paragraph rather than one speaker per paragraph is clear, let it stay how the author intends. In particular, in essays you might leave all the dialog in a single paragraph.
- Dialog tags: Use commas between dialog tags and dialog (as above)
- Use periods between dialog and actions that aren’t tags, because you can’t laugh words (for example). Tom laughed. “I knew that.”
- But retain commas where the dialog tag is implied. “I knew that,” Tom turned to Alys, “but I guess you didn’t.”
- Other commas:
- Commas are not as visible as other things on the page so don’t be too fussed about adding them when you edit. Try to stick to the way the author writes, unless the usage is inconsistent or confusing.
- Generally split strings of long, boring, possibly exciting adjectives with commas, just to make it easier to read.
- You should probably separate long clauses, when they’re separate from the main sentence, with commas – again, to make it easier to read.
- We kind of like the Oxford comma, so he “eats, shoots, and leaves,” but don’t stress it – as long as the writing is clear, don’t add extra commas.
- We like commas between independent parts of sentences, and commas are useful, but don’t stress about them – again, try to stick to how the author writes.
- Try to avoid run-on sentences; separate the underlying sentences with semi-colons; you could separate them with periods instead. Remember the next sentence after a period starts with a capital letter. But again, they’re an “invisible” problem so don’t fuss about them, unless you think the author intended complete sentences.
- Colons don’t need to be followed by a capital
- Why? It seems to be modern usage
- List entries after the colon are usually separated by semi-colons.
- Try to use American spelling in general, but for British authors, just make sure their spellings are self-consistent. In particular, in essays you might leave British spelling as it’s part of the voice.
- American usage seems to be toward, forward, etc. rather than the English (and Canadian) towards, forwards, etc.
This one’s neither style nor editing, but we have to avoid quoting song lyrics if we want to avoid being sued.
And here’s the rest of the editing guide:
- Correct grammar (American standard, mostly) is preferred except in dialog or where it’s integral to the narrative voice.He gave cookies to Tom and me (not to me and Tom, and not to Tom and I).
- They asked Tom and me to go shopping (not Tom and I, and not me and Tom).
- Tom and I went shopping (not Tom and me, and not me and Tom).
- The “rule” is simple: Take out the other person to see which word to use – he gave cookies to me; they asked me; I went shopping, etc… Then put the “other” person first.
- Why do we care? Because, oddly enough, I is a word that sticks out on the page, and readers scanning the page will think our book very unprofessional if they see we’ve done this wrong.
- Try to avoid misplaced modifiers:
- He went to the table carrying his drink – was he carrying the drink or was the table?
- Why do we care? Just to avoid getting laughed at for getting it wrong.
- Clear grammar: There are rules about which person “he” refers to in a sentence, but the most important rule is that words like he, she, they, etc. should be clear to the reader. If something is unclear, a name might need to be added.
- Clear dialog: If the reader has to count paragraphs to work out who is speaking, the author might need to add a dialog tag.
- Use of dialect: If dialog is written in dialect, make sure the reader will know how to read it – maybe add “in his heavy French accent” for example.
- General clarity and consistency: If something feels confusing when you read it, there’s a good chance the author needs to fix it. For example:
- If someone has left the room, they can’t then cross the room.
- If they just sat down, they can’t walk without standing up again.
- If the house is on fire, the bedroom probably isn’t cold. etc.