Choices … and More Choices
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!