Editing is a BIG job, and sometimes it can seem like it's taking forever. Trying to get a story to flow and hit all the emotional beats at the right points… Getting your head around the nuances of voice, show vs tell, and the dialogue flow… And we shouldn't forget the dreaded punctuation and grammar.

But sometimes, editing has nothing to do with voice, writing style, or what might be in the dictionary. Sometimes, it's the little details that define our characters or settings that need to be filtered through an entire manuscript (or multiple manuscripts).

When you are working with a long story, the little details can sometimes get lost among the screes of words in all the random notes and files that might be thrown all over the place. This is particularly problematic when working in a series where particular characters might be used in story after story.

To help keep the little details straight, create character style sheets as you go.

Create character style sheets as you go.

Style sheets and style guides are documents that editors use to define how certain details are to appear in a manuscript. The most common style guides in an editor's arsenal define the punctuation and grammar to be employed, e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style. However, some editors ask for style sheets that describe character names, physical appearances, defining behavioral characteristics, and the like.

These character style sheets (or character bibles as they are also called) provide valuable information at the fingertips, so you don't have to hunt down the details in among the written prose.

As a writer myself, I can tell you from experience, that it is much easier to create these character style sheets as you go.

And the character style sheets can also be used for settings and locations.

Character style sheets in Scrivener

If you are using Scrivener, the default novel template encourages you to create the character style sheets (and location style sheets) within your project. Templates are provided to give you prompts as to the sort of information that you might include.

I have changed the default templates within my Scrivener projects to something more suitable to my personal writing methods, and using a formatting that works for me on-screen. But the number of times I have forgotten how to spell my main character's last name easily counts into the triple digits. (Perhaps this is why I made the misspelling and mispronunciation of her name a running gag.)

But every time I write a defining feature about a character, I'll add it to my character style sheet.

Character style sheets in other programs

Not all writers like using Scrivener, and that's okay. But you can still create a character style sheet using whatever program you want.

I know some writers who set up tables in Excel or Google Sheets, containing all the important information that they need for their characters and locations. (I have one myself which contains a dictionary filled with my made up language.)

Other writers have been known to create whole Word documents for their character bibles, including pictures that they use for inspiration. Other writers will have notebooks, filled with notes.

Whatever system you use, trust me when I say that it is much easier to build this character style sheet as you write. And your editor will be grateful to you for the information when it comes time to copyedit your manuscript, because they won't need to create the style sheet themselves.