S45E5 – Style Guides for Editing

You’ve probably heard of official style guides, such as Chicago or MLA. These are standardized guidelines for how to format words, punctuation, and more. Each type of writing – whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, or journalism – uses one of these standard guidelines. As an editor, you can also create or build upon a custom style guide for a book or series. The rules found in guides like Chicago are flexible, especially when regarding fiction. To keep it consistent across a book and especially across a series, you can create a specific guide. This will hold things like character and place names so the spelling stays consistent, a timeline of events, the structure of worldbuilding, and any details of how you are using punctuation or text formatting. Listen for more on how to create your own style guide. First aired August 17, 2023.