Style guide

Just a little list for me to refer to and for people to argue with me about.

I care about writing but this site is not a showcase for good writing. More for thinking and getting thoughts out. So, thoughts over prose.

This:

I like my sentences to look the same as they speak. I steer clear of contractions, like No. or Ltd, and spell out numbers up to a hundred, because otherwise the reader has to think for a micro-moment about how to turn that symbol into sound. I avoid the en dash if it requires the reader to silently say the word to, as in the 1939–1945 war. I shun that forward-slanting line, the solidus, because it means the reader has to say slash in her head when it is not on the page. Eccentricities of mine, perhaps. But if the reader can’t hear the words, how can she pace out the beat of a sentence?

– First You Write a Sentence, Joe Moran

Also this, from the same:

Your sentences should mimic the naturalness of speech, so long as you remember that speech is not really natural and that writing is not really like speech.

My favourite parenthesis is the dash. This should be an en dash but markdown doesn't do an en dash so it's usually a hyphen.

Italics are used liberally. I'm especially fond of multi-word italics. I don't italicise the names of books or films etc.

Images and capitals are used minimally.

This is a pro-Oxford comma house.

I do not omit the s on words that end in s with possessive apostrophes. What I mean is, I know it's supposed to be Frances' but I will write Frances's because I find the former weird. I have a name that happens with so I feel I reserve the right.

Weeks start on a Monday.

I like adverbs. I just do! Sue me.

Still trying to work out how I want to write the name of this platform, Bear. Bear blog with a space? Bearblog all one word? Inconsistent so far.

These sentences come directly from my brain. No AI whatsoever is involved in this site or my thoughts.

Too many instances of: that, just, really

Not style, necessarily, but editorial perhaps: I try to keep things positive.

It's been 2 months, 3 weeks since the last update ↑ Top