Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for Fiction
Recently, a friend had witnessed a heated discussion between writers about the MLA Style book and the Chicago Manual of Style. She suggested I write an article on it. If you're not a fiction writer, this won't apply to you, but if you do write fiction, here's important information for you about style standards at major publishing houses. This article, which I wrote, originally appeared on Suite101. Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for Market Fiction Some Tips on Style Used By Publishing Houses Writers should be aware that the style books used at colleges may be different from the style book used by a publishing house for novels. Many colleges use the MLA (Modern Language Association) Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, also known as the MLA Style book. However, the style book used by most major publishing houses is the The Chicago Manual of Style . (At the time of this writing, this link is for the 16th edition. You should go with the most recent edition.) Fic