Lore & LilacCopyedit style sheet
Decide it once. Hand your editor the list.
Grey or gray, the serial comma, “twelve” or “12”, how a dash sits between words: a style sheet records the choices your book makes. Keep one beside the manuscript, let it point out the places that don't match, and give your copyeditor a clean file of it.
No AI involved The style sheet and its checks are pattern matches run on our servers. Nothing is sent to an AI provider, and nothing in your text is changed.
What you get
Copyedit style sheet, in detail
- A base guide — The Chicago Manual of Style, AP, MLA, APA or your own house style — that sets sensible starting choices
- Your choices: US spelling, UK spelling or UK with -ize; the serial (Oxford) comma; numbers spelled out up to a limit you set; dash and ellipsis style; your preferred dictionary
- A word list with notes: characters, places, invented terms and deliberate spellings. Names and aliases from your story bible are included automatically
- Check the manuscript: a list of places that differ from your choices — two spellings of one word, a list without the serial comma, numerals below your limit, a name one letter off the word list
- Each spot quoted with its chapter and scene, and an Open passage link to it in the editor
- Style sheet for your editor: download it as a Word document or Markdown, with your choices, notes and the full word list. It's a separate file, never added to the book
How it works
In practice
Pick a base guide
Choose Chicago, AP, MLA, APA or house style. Each sets starting choices you can change one by one.
Make the calls
Spelling, serial comma, numbers, dashes, ellipses. Add notes for your editor about anything unusual — dialect, a character who never uses contractions.
Build the word list
Story-bible names are already there. Add invented words and deliberate spellings, each with a note if it needs one.
Check, then decide
Run the check to see where the text differs. Open each passage and change it yourself — or leave it, because some will be right as they are.
Where we draw the line
What it never does
- Correct a word, comma or number for you
- Pretend the check is a copyedit — it's a pattern match, and some spots will be fine
- Add the style sheet to your book or its exports
These follow from our commitments. The studio never writes, suggests or rewrites your prose, anywhere.
Before you start
Questions writers ask
Does this replace a copyeditor?
No. It records your decisions and points out places that don't match them, which saves a copyeditor time and saves you queries. A copyeditor reads for far more than patterns.
What does the check look for?
Words spelled two ways (grey and gray) or against your US/UK choice, words close to a name on your word list, lists with or without the serial comma, numbers written against your rule, and dash and ellipsis styles that differ from yours. It shows the first spots of each kind with a count of the rest.
Why is “Rose” on my word list?
Names and aliases from your story bible are added automatically, so your editor knows them. Edit the story bible and the list follows.
Try copyedit style sheet on your own draft
Import your draft from Word, Scrivener, RTF, EPUB or Markdown, or start on a blank page. The 14-day trial needs no card, and your book is exportable from the first word.