Do you remember whether it’s good-bye, goodbye, or good bye? Should you type eleven thirty a.m. or 11:30 a.m.?
How often have you searched for answers to similar questions?
Major style guides weigh in at more than 1000 pages. Are you tired of humongous manuals? I was, but not anymore. Read on to find out what I did.
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When trying to find the answer to a specific question, you can often spend several minutes — or even hours — in research.
The internet might seem quicker, but you could locate hundreds of sites with varying views on the same topic.
Then, after you locate what you deem the correct answer to a question, you’ll remember it for a while. However, it’s easy to forget, especially if it’s something obscure.
A Personal Style Guide Saves Time and Frustration.
Create a document in an easily accessible location. If you use several devices for writing, consider a cloud file that you can edit no matter where you work.
Generate keyword-rich headings and keep your information organized in a logical manner, including applicable URLs.
My guide has one chapter titled Miscellaneous, with a list of common words. The first word is the correct version, followed by incorrect versions in parentheses. This technique allows me to search for good-bye, goodbye, or good bye and quickly access the correct line in the document. This is what comes up:
good-bye or goodbye (not good bye)
Although good-bye and goodbye are both considered acceptable, my first choice is good-bye. That’s why it’s listed first.
Colors
A personal style guide is also a good place to record ideas. For example, I like to avoid overused expressions like doe-brown eyes. My style guide contains a Colors chapter with a section of various ways to describe brown:
acorn
almond
autumn
Bambi
buckeye (dark brown)
camel
chipmunk
cookie
cork
fawn
ginger
kiwi
loam
peanut
pretzel
taffy
teddy bear
tourmaline
walnut
Eyes
And speaking of eyes, a word that’s frequently overused, how about:
baby blues
headlights
lamps
lenses
orbs
peepers
pupils
slits
spheres
Yes, baby blues is cliché but you get the idea.
Favorite Phrases
Have you stumbled across a few phrases that you’d like to use in your own writing? Set up a chapter for that.
A grin leapt to his face.
a pall of thick, black smoke
A series of foul insults spewed from his mouth.
accosted by a stab of guilt
an untenable position
at crazy velocity
bronzed visage
canted on its side
deepening dusk
dumpy dowager
from ear to there
goggle-eyed glare
grizzled skin
He bolted out of bed.
He knuckled his eyes.
He pitched forward.
he shot a hard glance at
… and so on.
The Writer’s Lexicon series
and additional resources on my Facebook page.
Curses
How about a chapter filled with various substitutions for cursing? The following list includes old-fashioned expressions as well as modern alternatives.
antiquated expletives
balderdash
baloney
barnacles
beans
bite me
blankety-blank
blast
bleeping
blimey [Aus.]
bloody
bloomin’
boy-o-boy
bug off
bunk
chorus of curses
crabs
crackers
crappin’ crackers
crapola
crikey [Aus.]
crud
crumbs
dad-gone thing
dad-gone-it
dagnabit
dang
darned
doggone it
drat
earwax
eat slugs
egad
falderal
fiddle faddle
fiddlesticks
filled the air with ripe invective
fishsticks
for crying out loud
for Pete’s sake
for the lova Mike
frack
freaking
fuddle duddle
fudge
fudge berries
fudge nuggets
gadzooks
gee whiz
Get stuffed.
golly
good grief
good gravy
goodness
gosh
goshdarnit
hogwash
hay
He cursed fluently.
He flooded the office with fluent curses.
He swore fluently.
His fluent curses flooded the room.
hockey puck
hogwash
hokum
holy crow
holy smokes
horse feathers
horse pucky
I don’t give a hoot.
I don’t give a toss. [UK]
I couldn’t care less.
jeepers
jeepers creepers
jumpin’ frog turds
jumpin’ Jiminy
jumpin’ George
just flippin’ wonderful
kitty whiskers
leapin lizards
litany of curses
malarkey
man
monkey fingers
mule pucky
my word
no way
nonsense
oh bother
omigosh
pffft
phooey
pig poop
poppycock
raspberries
rats
ripe invective
ripe speech
sakes alive
shinola
shoot
shucks
Shut the front door!
snot
son of a _____
son of a biscuit
Stuff it!
Stuff yourself.
sufferin’ succotash
sugar
What-the?
What the duck?
What the frog?
When pigs fly!
Who gives a flyin’ fig?
wow
zounds
Other Headings
Other headings you might want to include in your guide:
Abbreviations
Commas
Ellipses
Em Dashes
Italics and Capitalization
Time of Day and Time Zones
Alternative Ways to Describe Body Parts
Word-Processor Shortcuts and Tips
It’s Worth the Effort
A personal style guide requires planning and setup time, but your efforts will be rewarded with better and faster writing.
The Writer’s Lexicon series
and additional resources on my Facebook page.
Discover more from KathySteinemann.com: Free Resources for Writers
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I’ve just received 4 emails from you with 2 questions and 2 answers from you – they’re just comments on this article. Please tell me you’re not going to send an email every time there’s a question and answer here!
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I have a character who is supposed to have read an impossible number of books from all sorts of libraries. He uses a few antiquated words now, but i’m looking for more from especially the 1800s. Worse, as an American, i’m essentially mono-lingual (unless you count computer languages) and this character is fluent in Ancient Greek, etc., and has been told by someone old enough that his Latin pronunciation is excellent for a anyone, much less a non-native of the era. I’ve no idea how to get this idea over without an explanation like this. So ‘antiquated expletives’ is exactly the kind of thing i’m looking for. It’s just that it’s hard to imagine this character ever using expletives. He uses ‘coddywomple’ instead of ‘walk about’. He has more use for ‘snollygoster’.
‘Build your own electronic style guide reference’ is an excellent idea.
Thanks, Stephen.
Maybe read some novels written in the 1800s? Then you’ll truly get a handle on the period vernacular — especially if you can find a writer who shares some of the characteristics of your multilingual individual. Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org) would be a good place to start.
I’ve enjoyed reading Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style. It’s nothing like 1,000 pages, though it is pretty slow reading. From my perspective, the second best style guide, uhm, well, there’s no polite word for my opinion of them. It’s “Never use a preposition to end a sentence with”. Is ‘with’ a preposition? Seriously? And then the style guide author ‘breaks’ the rule in the same paragraph or at least nearby. And, the ‘broken’ sentence is perfectly fine. Pinker sets you up for success, not failure.
You made me laugh. Yup. No style guide is perfect. 😉
‘Bloody’ isn’t a substitute for a swear word – it IS a swear word
Although it’s considered an expletive by many, it’s a mild expletive that doesn’t pack the same weight as f*ck, d*mn, or sh*t. Many writers use it nowadays.
Thanks for stopping by, S. Stay safe!
A great idea! I know I keep checking the same things.
Thanks, Sylvia! Since I first posted this, I’ve expanded on several of these topics. Now I have a burgeoning document that I refer to several times daily as I write. I’ll eventually incorporate them into a book.
Personal style guide! Brilliant! I have one of a sort. Not organized, just a whole lot of lists. Thanks for the idea. And, Happy New Year!
Thanks, Mike. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!