Manuscript Style Sheet

Have you ever realized after submitting your manuscript for publication or self-published that you had spelled a character’s name differently a few times? Toggled between “gray” and “grey,” or mucked up timeline? (Wait, how long was she pregnant??)

Those missteps could have easily been avoided if you’d used a style sheet.

A style sheet is a document with different “drawers” where you keep notes as you copy edit your manuscript. Each item that needs to be standardized across the full manuscript has a specific spot where you can note its use and cross-check later uses against that spelling, formatting convention, or specific use of your own design within your project.

Particularly useful for book series or long-form book projects, fantasy and speculative projects involving world-building, and scientific or technical texts, a style sheet is a necessary organizational tool that will help you maintain your authority and credibility as an author with editors and readers alike.

(It also alleviates you from having to manually flip through the manuscript uncountable times combing through to look for each and every potential issue).

The 10-page Style Sheet comes with:

• 1 page for words and word uses in alphabetical order
• 1 page for numerals, grammatical concepts, punctuation uses, and formatting
• 8 customizable pages with space for suggested issues such as timelines, character names, formatting, words in alternate languages, and quotes (useful for promotion, uploading to Goodreads, etc.)
• Placeholder text of issues we at One Lit Place look for, which you can keep as a reference and add to, or delete and customize with your own text.

The multi-page sheet can be filled out online and saved (and re-used again and again) or printed for handwritten notes.

Could you make your own style sheet? You bet. It only takes time– time you might rather spend writing. Use ours, and you’re good to go straight away!