I prefer having rules. It’s how things ought to be. There should be a right way to punctuate faltering or interrupted dialogue, to choose between toward or towards, or to know whether to make that last comma italic or Roman. (The answer is Roman.) So I made a major commitment a few weeks ago. I stopped looking up grammar, punctuation, and usage questions at what I hoped were trustworthy online sources. Too often those websites either disagreed or offered no helpful guidelines and I was having to decide on my own what rule to use. In addition, the sites didn’t cover many of the fine points, forcing me to make up too much. I needed a comprehensive style guide. So I adopted The Chicago Manual of Style.
I wish I had a good reason for waiting so long (especially since I am a University of Chicago alumnus). The CMOS is one of American English’s most accepted writing style standards. I suppose I thought it was mostly for dissertations and other academic papers. I was wrong.
It’s a major undertaking to look up all over again the myriad things I’ve wondered about. Plus, I just need to sit and read some sections of the book (perhaps at bedtime?). It will take a long time, but once I learn the Chicago rules of style, I won’t have to look up those answers so much anymore. The most difficult thing for me is punctuation, especially in italics or dialogue. Under Shōko’s Bed has far more italicized text than any of my other novels, so it has been hard to edit. Once I have mastered Chicago style, though, novels I write from then on will not need so many style interventions.
I just wish every topic in the CMOS had a single answer, even if it was context dependent. But some seem to have multiple acceptable styles or even conflicting advice in different sections. (I’m still not sure which numbers to spell out in dialogue, for example.) So some choices remain. Writing is all about choices, after all. In the pursuit of art, any rule is breakable as long as the breaking is purposeful. I’m the one at the computer, so the ultimate decisions are all mine. For stylistic choices, though, I wanted some help. With the CMOS next to me, I have somewhere authoritative to turn.