©Rachel Daven Skinner 2015 www.romancerefined.com
[Book Title] style sheet
This manuscript has been copyedited using Chicago Manual of Style 16 th edition [or New Hart’s
Rules for UK style] as a base style guide. The primary dictionary used for spelling and hyphenation decisions was www.oxforddictionaries.com/ pro US [or UK] edition, and the secondary dictionary was Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11 th edition [for US manuscripts only]. Clarifications and departures from the standards of those sources, in accord with Romance Refined’s house style and author preference, are listed below.
Word Treatment Consistency List
A, B, C, D
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Brand/pop culture references:
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Abercrombie & Fitch (ampersand)
E, F, G, H
 façade (w/ accent)
Brand/pop culture references:
 eBay
I, J, K, L
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Brand/pop culture references:
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Q, R, S, T step-mama (hyphen)
Brand/pop culture references:
 okay (not OK)
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The Man
Brand/pop culture references:
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PlayStation
M, N, O, P
U, V, W, X, Y, Z
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Brand/pop culture references:
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©Rachel Daven Skinner 2015 www.romancerefined.com
Numbers
Most numbers are spelled out in fiction. Arabic numbers for the following exceptions:
 numbers 101 and above, excluding twodigit numbers followed by thousands, millions, etc., (2,204, but twenty-two thousand), and no superscript with ordinals
(101st, not 101 st
):
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House and room numbers in an address:
 phone numbers:
 times that include hour and minute, but spell out the hour, quarter, and half hour (2:33 a.m. and 2:45 in the morning, but two thirty a.m., two fifteen in the morning, two o’clock)
 years (1985), no apostrophe for plural
(1980s), but spell out decades (the eighties):
 bus, train, plane identifiers:
 scores (with closed en dash):
 brands or icons:
 other: 24/7, 4.0 GPA, 9/11 (terrorist attack),
3D, and others as appropriate
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Formatting and Styles first line indent set to 0.25 inches (same as 1.5 picas or 18 points, about 0.64 cm)
 style for chapter headings: Heading 2
 style for first paragraph following a chapter heading or scene break: No
Indent
 style for main body: Normal
 style called “Letters, emails, headlines” indents at 0.5 inches (3 picas, 36 points,
1.27 cm)
 style called “Text messages” is same as above plus bold
Punctuation notes
 serial comma used?
 commas necessary to bracket too ?
 ellipses glyph, space either side except when next to other punctuation
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US: em dashes for interruptions and parenthetical phrases—no space either side
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UK: em dashes for interruptions—no space either side; en dashes for parenthetical phrases – space either side
 remove most semicolons from dialogue
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Grammar notes subjunctive used?
Characters (full names, nicknames, appearance, personal tics, habits, backgrounds, etc.)
(Note: I generally list out all characters in this section, and most info is copy and pasted straight from the manuscript so that if references need changing I can easily navigate the manuscript by pasting a quote into Word’s “Find” feature)
Heroine
 ‘mop of black curls’, blue eyes, expressive face, 19
 ‘I was raised in Atlanta until I was sixteen.’
 ‘For eighteen years she’d tried to make her father notice her. Now, she did the opposite.’
 has a cat named Bertha

©Rachel Daven Skinner 2015 www.romancerefined.com
Spatial awareness (layout for buildings, fictitious towns, distances, etc.)
 hero’s house o 10-minute drive from heroine’s house o ground floor
 “In all my eagerness, I flung open the front door, forgetting all about the coat rack he kept just the other side of it. Down it went in a cacophony of sound.
Damn the tiny front hall for ruining my entrance.”
 kitchen: two sinks (utility sink by the back door)
Miscellaneous
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Favorite Quotes
This is a bonus section (not a standard part of style sheets) to list great quotes that authors may want to upload to Goodreads, share on social media, and use on their promo material.
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Dates/Timeline
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Day/Date column: the “Day” is how many days have passed since page 1, not a reference to a date. If day of the week is known, list it. If the calendar date is known, list that too.
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Events: summary of activities & quotes referencing days of the week/dates/time passing, and cyclical things like moon phases, missed periods, etc. (As with info pasted into character descriptions, having the verbatim words helps for navigating the manuscript when changes need to be made)
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Chapter: I don’t list page numbers since they can rapidly be thrown off kilter with additions/deletions during edits
Chapter Day/Date Events
2003
References to Past Events
 hero’s dad died
Mar ’04
Sept ’04
 dad’s killer found guilty
 dad’s killer gets new cellmate
Apr 3, ’05  dad’s killer found dead in prison cell
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Day 1
Friday
Jun 2015
Present Day Begins, chapter 1
 “Thank God it was Friday and work was almost over.”
 heroine at the office, goes out for drinks with girlfriends, finds her window open at home
2
6
6
4, 5
1–2

©Rachel Daven Skinner 2015 www.romancerefined.com
Day 3
Sun
 hero leaves for a camping trip, has no reception to listen to voicemail left by an unknown number
 heroine buys shoes for wedding, thinks about how
“it’s only two weeks till the big day”
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2
Day 4
Mon
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
Day
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The end!
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To add or delete rows:
–In older versions of Word, place your mouse curser in the left-hand margin next to the
Table. Right click your mouse button and you’ll see the row next to your curser will become highlighted. In the menu that has appeared, select either Insert Rows or Delete Rows.
–In newer versions of Word, you may see a + sign if you hover your curser near the left edge of the table, and clicking it will add a line.

©Rachel Daven Skinner 2015 www.romancerefined.com
 I use a different color for each year. To change the color, right click in the row you’d like to change. In the small horizontal menu that appears (the one above the long vertical menu) click the Shading paint bucket and choose a new color.