If you’ve never hired a copyeditor to look over your work, you probably aren’t thinking about making a style sheet for your book. But there are several practical reasons why your book might need a style sheet right now. I’ve laid out six of them for you below.
What Is a Style Sheet?
First things first: what is a style sheet, exactly?
A style sheet is like a mini style guide tailored to your specific book. It keeps all the details nice and organized, from character descriptions to maps to whether or not you use the Oxford comma. These documents are often the work of diligent copyeditors, but you may want to create one yourself as you write.
6 Practical Reasons Why Your Book Needs a Style Sheet
Do any of these apply to you?
1. You Have a Huge Cast of Characters, Places, Conlangs, or Invented Words
If you’re writing high fantasy, space opera, or just a long family epic, you need a style sheet to help you keep track of who’s related to whom and how. You need the names of the people, places, and things you’ve invented to remain the same throughout the manuscript—no confusion over whether that guy’s name is Damien or Damian. And if you’ve got conlangs, oh buddy, do you ever need a style sheet for those.
Don’t let this intimidate you or scare you out of writing the 200,000-word book of your heart, though. Composing a style sheet for your book can be as simple as taking notes on each character as you introduce them: what’s their name, occupation, physical description, etc.? For locations, you might include a quickly sketched map of the area, complete with major cities and other important places. Invented words need a quick description of the object or concept. Conlangs should include major linguistic features, speakers, and a dictionary. (In fact, you may want to create a separate style sheet for each conlang you have.)
2. You Have Important Buildings and Landscapes in Your Work
Does your book take place in a small town where everyone knows each other? Or maybe on a secluded cul-de-sac? Do you have 1,001 islands making up your world, or a whole federation of planets to keep track of?
No matter where or when your novel is set, if you’ve got locations to keep track of, you need a style sheet. Sketch out floorplans for major building locations, like the MC’s house and workplace. Design maps of fantasy worlds and sci-fi settings. Write down who lives where, with whom, and for how long. What do those people do? What are they known for? How far back does their civilization trace?
These are all questions you need to answer for yourself, regardless of whether those details will make it into your book. A style sheet is the best way to organize that info.
3. Your Book Has Complex Formatting
Maybe you’re working with a nonfiction manuscript that has tons of images, figures, and text boxes. Or perhaps you’re writing an epistolary novel or a book like House of Leaves, in which different characters’ words and stories are represented with different fonts. Regardless of the circumstances that have led you to write a manuscript with complex formatting, your book needs a style sheet to maintain consistency throughout.
4. You’re Self-Publishing
Self-publishing is a bear. You’re responsible for coordinating the editing, design, and marketing for your book. Even if you’ve put together a crack team to handle those things for you, a style sheet is still a great idea.
The style sheet functions as a book bible. In addition to the possibilities listed above, a style sheet can help you organize font sizes and weights, cover design elements, and even front and back matter. Those last two items don’t typically go into a style sheet, but when you’re self-publishing, the rules are a bit different. Basically, you can put anything into your book bible that serves you.
5. You Get a Headache When Your Copy Isn’t Clean
Lord, do I hate coming across a missed hyphen or rogue italics in one of my manuscripts. Some people don’t get hung up on the finer details of their writing and can allow themselves to write truly messy copy the first go-round. I am not one of those people. For better or worse, I try to keep my book looking publication-ready at all times. It just frustrates and distracts me if I have inconsistent spacing, font weights, punctuation—you name it.
If you’re like me, your book needs a style sheet. Or at least a style guide. I prefer The Chicago Manual of Style in combination with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but you might like the New Oxford Style Manual or The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. If you don’t want to splurge on a style guide—they can be spendy—pick a recent book by your favorite author and consult it in matters of style. You can put together your style sheet as you go along.
6. You’re Planning to Hire an Editor
If you intend to hand your manuscript off to an editor for feedback, you may want to consider making your own style sheet, or at least starting on one. An editor might ask if you have a style sheet already, but they aren’t going to turn you away for not having one. However, handing them a style sheet can make their lives a little easier as they cull through your manuscript.
Want more information on editing and writing-adjacent documents? Check out my advice for new writers and this handy guide to writing a short story cover letter.