March’s feature presentation was “Developing your own Style Sheet and Standardizing Your Punctuation Practices” by Judith Stanton. Novelist, poet, and scholar, Judith has also worked as a technical editor and an acquiring editor for an E-press. She loves talking about style, usage, grammar, and punctuation. Her example author Style Sheet for Wendy Lindstorm is below. (www.wendylindstrom.com) Her message: make your own style sheet appropriate to your material and limit those mistakes later. Here are the links to sentence punctuation and hyphens.
Judith Stanton handout for Writers Morning
Out 20190316
Wendy’s
Style Sheet—updated 20190315
What is a style sheet,
and why do I want one?
A
style sheet will help you whether you are planning to traditionally publish or
self-publish. If traditional, your new agent and editor will be not only
relieved but impressed that you are so organized and professional in your
approach to your work. Whether your prose or poetry is contemporary,
historical, futuristic, paranormal or wildly experimental, each subgenre has
its own insider lingo. For many of the terms here, usage is in flux. I made an
editorial decision to standardize these words in the most modern way,
throughout her 8 novels.
These
preferred spellings and usages are based on online and print copies of Merriam Webster
and others, including the British OED and Cambridge dictionary and Free Dictionary
on line. I made Merriam Webster (MW below) my default authority. I am checking
each of these words in every book and adding new words as they crop up. This
will help tremendously to ensure consistency as I edit Wendy’s last two novels.
~~~~~~~
USAGE/SPELLING
double
time (as a noun) BUT double-time (as
a verb)
Drug
Store, drug store but drug-store owner
dry,
drier, driest (as relates to moisture) BUT
dryer (as in clothes dryer or blow dryer)
farther
(used for distance only) BUT further
(used where you can substitute more or
additionally)
goodbye
(one word in MW—BUT MW notes
good-bye as a variant)
Grandma/Grandmother/Grandfather
when addressing him or her by name
BUT lower case
grandma/grandmother/grandfather when modified by my, your or our
may
(used for permission) BUT “might”
(used when conditional)
melee
(no accent marks in current American usage, this is a trend)
naive,
naivete (no accent marks in current American usage, also a trend)
pastime
BUT parttime—go figure…
wave
(when waving a hand) BUT waive (to
evade, forgo or relinquish)
ALWAYS HYPHENATED (and
obviously rare!)
narrow-minded
(always hyphenated)
empty-handed
(always hyphenated)
COMMON PHRASE, NO HYPHENS,
ALL SEPARATE WORDS
cast
iron frying pan
chest
of drawers
mill
pond
saloon
keeper, saloon owner
suit
coat
ONE WORD, NEVER HYPHENATED
babytalk,
babytalking
backpedal
or backpedaled
backyard
(becoming standard now)
bathwater,
bathroom, bathtub
bedstand,
bedside
boardinghouse
closefisted
cobblestone
collarbone
cookstove
fieldstone
firewood
heartsick,
heartsore
nightclothes,
nightrail, nightshirt, nightstand
peephole
schoolboy,
schoolgirl, schoolhouse, schoolmarm, schoolroom, schoolteacher and schoolyard BUT school board and school day
showroom
snowball,
snowbank, snowfall, snowflakes
stepmother
suppertime
watercloset
windowpane
woodbin,
woodpile, woodshed, woodshop, woodworking
workbench
Snarly and shifting
hyphenations. Phrases
like eye to eye, face to face, man to man, and side by side are seriously
confusing!
Rule: they are hyphenated if used as an
adjective before a noun but not hyphenated if standalone.
Examples:
They
had a serious man-to-man talk. BUT…
They
talked man to man.
WHEW!
April’s feature presentation is “YOU”. Bring your or a favorite poem or prose piece for an OPEN MIC. 5-6 minutes in length, including your intro, reading, and follow-up. It is, after all, Poetry Month.
May’s feature presentation is “So You Want To Self-Publish Your Book And You Don’t Know Squat” by Rick Bylina. An umbrella presentation on how to get started with copious references to additional resources. A Chatham County author, Rick has self-published seven books and has a website that needs a serious update.
