If you’ve ever had a manuscript professionally edited, you’ve seen a copyeditor’s stylesheet. Among other things a stylesheet is a list of character names and place names, and serves as a key to how these should be spelled. What’s the need for this? Well, it’s not uncommon for a writer to wander from the path and start using different terms and different spellings over the course of a 200-500 page manuscript.

For the last two novels I’ve started putting together my own stylesheet, and it’s been extremely valuable. My stylesheet does a lot more than serve as a spelling reference, though. I copy character and setting descriptions into it, write notes on the society, and include whatever else might be useful to help me develop a consistent story world. Categories that I’m currently using include characters, place names, expletives (very useful, this one), society, and available-character-names (used if I have to name a new character on the fly).

I don’t do a whole lot with the stylesheet during the first draft because everything’s so fluid at this stage. Even so, the stylesheet is hugely useful when I find myself thinking “What did that uniform look like again?” or “How did I describe that character?”

During the second draft I get much more consistent about adding terms and names, along with the page numbers of first occurrence.

Draft 3 is the “polishing” draft. I go through the manuscript and add to the stylesheet any names/terms I missed before, noting where they originated. This way it’s easy to see if the character or concept is launched later in the novel than it should be, and if so I can go back and layer the idea in earlier. This is also the time when I skip through the manuscript, tracking certain concepts to make sure they’re consistent throughout.

Sidebar: the other advantage of skipping through the manuscript is that seeing the parts out of context can expose awkward phrasing or things that just don’t make sense.

So if you’re working on your own novel, consider a stylesheet. Don’t obsess over it or spend loads of time on it that would be better devoted to your novel, but if you’re like me, you might find this a valuable organizing tool. And you’ll get extra use out of it if you’re writing a multi-volume work.