Spelling & style consistency
Every word in this category is spelled correctly. That is the problem. A dictionary has no opinion about whether this book says towards or toward, Council or council, star-forged or starforged, and so nothing objects when a draft carries both.
These guides cover deciding each of those questions once, writing the decision down where it can be applied, and then checking three hundred pages against it without introducing a fresh error in the process.
31 articles
Which English Do Published Novels Actually Keep?
Four decisions every manuscript answers whether or not its author makes them, measured across 12,602 published novels.
Numbers and Numerals in Fiction
Where the threshold sits, and the exceptions that break a flat rule.
Dates and Times Styling in Fiction
One form each for clocks, weekdays and centuries, plus the arithmetic behind them.
Measurements and Units in a Novel
Which units the narrator uses, which characters use, and honest conversions.
Foreign Words and Phrases in a Novel
Italicise or not, gloss or not, and hold one treatment throughout.
Accents and Diacritics in a Manuscript
Where accents get lost, and why the loss is invisible until print.
Transliteration Consistency in Fiction
Several correct renderings, one book, and a draft that used three of them.
Capitalising Titles and Ranks in Fiction
One rule, broken in both directions by almost every draft.
Capitalising Invented Institutions
The Council or the council, and why the answer has to be written down.
When to Capitalise a Common Noun
Fantasy promotes ordinary words into proper ones. Which earn the capital?
Capitalisation After a Dialogue Tag
Tag or beat, and the punctuation that follows from the difference.
Style Sheet vs Style Guide for Novelists
One is published and general. One is yours and specific. You need both.
How to Build a House Style for Your Novel
Scattered decisions, one document, and the checks that prove it held.
Apostrophes and Contractions in Fiction
Period contractions, dropped letters, and the mark autocorrect gets backwards.
Open, Closed or Hyphenated Compounds
Three forms, all plausible, none flagged by anything you have run.
Hyphenated Adjectives in Fiction
Where the hyphen carries meaning, and where it is just noise.
Italics Consistency in a Manuscript
Five jobs, one typeface, and a draft that changed its mind about two of them.
Curly and Straight Quotes in a Manuscript
Invisible on screen, obvious in print, and in almost every draft.
Quotation Mark Styles in Fiction
Single or double, nesting, and the break convention that looks like an error.
Ellipses and Interrupted Speech Styling
Three effects, three marks, and a draft that used them interchangeably.
The Serial Comma in Fiction
Ten seconds to decide, ten minutes to check, and worth doing before a copyedit.
Ise or Ize Endings in Fiction
Both are British. Pick one, learn the exempt words, and check the draft agrees.
Toward or Towards, and the Other Split Pairs
The small words that split a draft in half without either half being wrong.
Grey or Gray in a Novel
Both are correct, one is often a surname, and most drafts contain both.
Okay or OK in Fiction: Which Spelling Should You Use?
Three spellings, one word, and most dialogue-heavy drafts contain at least two.
How to Check Spelling Variants Across a Manuscript
What to search, what search cannot reach, and the order that avoids new errors.
Why a Spellchecker Is Not a Consistency Check
A dictionary has no opinion about which correct form your book chose.
Dialect and Eye Dialect Consistency
Deliberate misspellings drift too, and nothing anywhere will flag them.
British vs American Spelling in a Novel
Pick one standard, know what it signals, then check the draft actually keeps it.
How to Choose a Spelling Standard for Your Book
Four inputs, one decision, one line in your style sheet. Then never think about it again.
Fixing Mixed Spelling Standards in a Manuscript
Both standards in one book, and the safe order in which to resolve them.
Spelling & style consistency, on your own manuscript.
One pass finds every term your book spells more than one way.