"What's Your Style Platform or Style Guide?"

Night Writer's Cottage, Ashland, VA_copyright (c) 2014

The photo above holds memories of a very special week of reading and talking with a new writer, my husband, who is finishing his first book. We now use much that I learned--and he heard talked about over supper--for years as a book publisher and founder of Opine Publishing. Opine's presence exists now through our seven books published and online presence at Author Support and My News and Views blog, and social networking, including one and another Twitter account and Facebook.  

You're a writer that may have been writing for a long time. You may be a prolific writer of published articles. Today I'm thinking about facts I only learned due to working with a publisher for the first edition of my first book, Not All Roads Lead Home by Jane Bullard (pen name). When Opine published the expanded, second edition, the work was much easier for Opine's other editor, Carri, who used style platforms and showed me so I could teach myself more. 

Be assured that avoiding tedious details, unless someone else is hired to do it, can run a writer outside the margins (sorry, had to say it) for a long time...or not, depending on willingness to learn. I have found that whoever does the nitty-gritty, when I know the details and "how to's" of what they're doing, I'm able to fill in, help, or co-evaluate the accuracy of the work.

My purpose here is to introduce important manuscript prep facts that I advise any writer that asks me.
Because I hate reading articles with labels and acronyms I haven't a clue about, I'll try to make this clearer, at least, than mud. So if you do not know yet what is a Style Platform (SP) or a Style Guide (SG), I'm here to help.

And why should knowing about SPs/SGs be important to you?

First and for one thing, this knowledge can save you Time and Pulling-out-of-hair so that you may work more efficiently and keep whatever hair you have left. If someone else transcribes or types your work, then they should know.

Equally important, using this knowledge can help your work gain order and uniformity that editors expect, and so do some book agents.

Finally, it can become your style platform, but it began as their style platform, a specific editor's or publishing house's document/manuscript requirements before publication. These "rules" can become habitual for the writer to use, once the details are used often enough.

For example, each magazine will likely have a specific style guide to be used not only for publishing articles and features but also for considering submitted works by freelancers. It's good to research these guides, if available. Otherwise, in a query email or letter, you can let the editor know of your willingness to follow their in-house Style Guides if you could have a copy of what they entail.

Book publishers have style platform/guide preferences from the get-go, and it helps to try to anticipate those. 

For example, a manuscript should always be saved digitally, with the style platform built into the document. The hard copy should clearly show, at first glance, double spacing (definitely), Times New Roman font-font size 12 (most likely), and 250 words per page (often). Margins should be standard and, I prefer, aligned to the left. I also prefer hanging first lines of paragraphs, set at 0.5. Those are my preferred text format options.

Other options exist for headers, footers (page numbers, e.g.), and for in-text headings, regarding style designations and applications. Learn how to use these with your document software quickly. I recently upgraded my MS Word software and feel like I'm learning so much new stuff, but it has to be done...again, for the same reasons!

All style platform options should be available in your document program, under tabs for Home or Format, or other.

Select the font and its size and apply it to each document or chapter, using the "Apply" option. For paragraphs, try (in MS Word) "Format" and select the alignment (left), first-line option (hanging), line spacing (double). Most editors flinch over any bold, italic, or underline in the text, including headings. Some do not want headings, either.

Microsoft Word software is what I am most familiar with, having left the Corel software, which I thought was better for editing. Corel got swamped, in a way, by Microsoft's Word (MSWord) popularity.

Whatever writing or word software you use, you can query editors to see if yours would be okay to use for what you'll send to them, once they accept your article query. If editors open your digital files, they will not likely want to do file conversions (converting a document from Corel's WordPerfect to MSWord, for example), so try to find out and convert your document in advance, if needed. 

Again, editors that read piles of queries and book proposals (the proposal should include style details mentioned above) usually welcome the author mentioning, upon query, a readiness to use the publisher's in-house style, if a guide will be provided.  

I am not a guide writer, so for MS Word here is a recommended style platform resource for you to try if none of this is familiar to you as a writer. I know it was posted a few years ago, but I think it is still very useful. I had to teach myself what he shares in graphics, and so I recommend it to save you the time and hair-pulling-out!

All of us have to go through phases like this as writers, so it's a good thing to get started on this one if you haven't already. I checked a few "how to" articles online, and, as I said, this one looked best to me, given what I've learned on my own. I think it is the easiest, but you might find another, so search away! If you use this one, scroll down for the helpful screen graphics, especially the style boxes and how to name and modify styles.

If this sounds really strange to you now, soon it can be one of the first things you think about to do with any document that will present your ideas and whatever else you will share or create through books or articles.

Copyright (c) 2015 Jean P. Purcell

Grit Work for Nonfiction Finish

February 7, 2015 Update

...The American Humanitarian Spirit...1979-1986 

Authorship is about more than writing. Someone's eye must always focus ahead to a six-month publishing debut.  

With my  husband's permission, I update progress on his book manuscript, partly to honor the details of developing a book for publishing. Here is a February 2015 update, with preliminary info, also added today to post archived at My News and Views Blog, May 17, 2014. 

Jim Purcell's MS is a massive work with narrative and field accounts before and after the Fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975. Vietnamese allies that rushed to the U. S. Embassy for a helicopter on a tower on the roof were only the beginning of an unfolding tragedy. What the U. S. had to learn from the events of the Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos triangle equipped the nation to lead the world to revive its humanitarian spirit internationally within citizenry, governments, communities, churches, synagogues, and volunteer organizations.

The refugee decade, as it came to be known, required the development of policies and procedures for quick, life-saving responses in Southeast Asia, Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia), the Middle East, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Millions of lives depended on decisions and protocols made by people near and far away. Refugees would rarely see these men and women honoring and seeking to save and protect their lives. That was OK as long as the missions were accomplished.  

Files by category for the manuscript's news clippings and reports now allow faster fact-checking. End notes, the footnote-type info at the end of chapters, are fully referenced.

All MS sources have been listed according to Chicago Manual of Style formats for books, articles, journals, reports and other references according to chapters.

The list work by the author in long-hand by chapter is already typed and alphabetized in a Word document. The handwritten citations take up roughly 50 pages. I do not mind what I'm doing now, which is to type such details into pages for the end of each chapter.

Gathering publisher and copyright data online is what I volunteered for, as well as using front matter of print resources in the author's research collection.

Digital document tracking has gone along carefully, and still there are headache times for JNP and Andy Michaels. (If this interests you, use the link above, look at the graphics down the page, and see why Andy developed a system for the author.)

Two knowledgeable readers (link)--"they-were-there-too"--have digital and print copies to read and make comments. The link above goes to the sometimes underestimated Wikipedia, which has the best correct description and explanation of peer review(er) I have seen.

If the query letter (samples) succeeds in catching the interest of a key, professional, successful book agent, the book proposal (BP-sample ideas) will likely come into play; Jim's Work is not at that stage yet, but soon. The era of starting a book proposal helped additions, rethinking, and enlargement of the MS, for the better.

The author usually bears the bulk of work to gather and select resource information, as well as to keep track of the exact source of each quote, notation, or citation, including interviews by date. Plus organizing and writing the book well!

Every draft has made a better, stronger, more interesting, thrilling, and informative account of an era in U. S. history, leadership, and humanitarian response. That's my take on it.

*******

Copyright (c) 2015 James N. Purcell, Jr. and Jean P. Purcell

No Tide of Rudeness

JNP-in Aruba's warm get-away

We reached our island apartment due to thrifty time-share and air fare deals. I snapped a photo of JNP on the second-floor balcony, palm trees behind him.

We were in Aruba with two laptops, notebooks, and iPads, on a working vacation with a massive manuscript in progress. We could hardly believe we had reached yet another place we had never visited before. 

Aruba's friendliness, clear air, breezes and sun made the days fly. We detected the island energy and liveliness, yet there was no hint of emotional disturbances. This added to the effect of an unforgettable get-away.

We ate most meals at the time-share resort, and the dining room staff were always congenial.

When we visited the guest center for discovery ideas, staff never showed annoyance regardless of how many fast or detailed questions flew their way from other guests or us.

In the middle of the eastern coast of the United States, where I live, at times we have rudeness epidemics. In public, positions that once required patience with customers now seem to have stressed employees; customers that most likely used to hold their tongues now spew out complaints.

And, here's the thing. If you are on the bad end of an exchange, you usually have no idea if the behavior is typical of the person launching word missiles at you or if the person is having a bad day, has had a recent grief, has been disappointed or abandoned by an important someone, and so on.

If you or I launch angry-word missiles in return, in any case, a lose-lose situation has been formed, and the losing is likely to escalate into angrier words, sarcasm, or rolling of the eyes, huffing and puffing, and deep ugly frowns.

Before Jim and I left Aruba, I mentioned to one of the dining staff how kind and thoughtful everyone had been.

"We try to be," she answered, smiling. "We have problems, too...we want you to enjoy being here."

Having said that, she changed the conversation to our plans for the day.

She's right. Everyone has problems, including those on "one happy island," Aruba's tourist motto. They are committed to prove true to the island's label.

In public, we can rule out the downward trends of rudeness as a choice. We never know the difference it makes, for we do not know what burdens another carries.

What a treasure is every sign of of kindness. To give and to receive strengthens relationships--whether in the family, marriage, with friends, and at work. I don't mean pablum conversation or checking one's personality at the door, you see.

In fact, it comes down to signs of personal strength to show patience rather than quick sarcasm or outburst. I think you know what I am talking about, if this downward public trend has reached where you are. 

I like a proverb sent to me recently by someone I do not know, on Twitter. It affirmed the worth of each person. It helped my rough day, affirming that to accept one's worth is more important than others' views of you.

If I offend without knowing it, then I can only hope that someone with the strength to confront calmly and kindly will do it.

The friendliest staff in places close to where I live include: Quest Diagnostics, Whole Foods-Center city, Land's End at Sears, Giant Foods, Barnes & Noble coffee and reading area, Einstein's Bagels, U.S. Post Office at 40W, Vicki's Nails, and Twig next door.  I hope their customers are treating them equally as well. I do not dread having blood drawn, you see, because of the calm staff at Quest. Similarly, I look forward to going to the other places listed.

When in public, we never know what other people are facing or how much courage, and possibly faith, they showed by getting up and out that morning.