One concept that strikes me is the similarities between a simple menu and a well-crafted manuscript. Kershaw brings up the analogy of music and lyrics, where one may be great but is utterly destroyed by the other (think of a ear-catching pop tune with absolutely horrendous lyrics), and the same may be said for a manuscript. Think carefully about the layout. If your story is about love and the human condition, you probably don’t want a font that is sharp-edged and bold. Or, if you’re going for an academic journal, you don’t want your tracking or leading so far apart that the page looks as though it’s mostly empty space.

A quarrel I have with the way some restaurants mentioned in this article do things is the melodramatic wording in the menu. Saying something is “slammed with flavor” is a turn-off for me, because I appreciate the nuances in food. (You’ll notice that places such as Applebee’s and Huddle House go for the thick wording, while higher-end places go for simple and pithy copy.) I can go to the local supermarket and pick up a Little Debbie cake that is “slammed with flavor,” or I can visit my local baker and get a blueberry scone that has many different flavorful, quality ingredients that work together. One is dominated with sugar and chocolate, the other allows me to experience many of the quality ingredients that the baker uses. I prefer nuance.

When creating your manuscript, I suppose you could ask yourself, “Do I want the equivalent of a laminated chain restaurant menu the size of a legal pad, or a simple, cogent menu from a quality independent place?”

        

Like many style rules, recommendations for internal monologue vary by publishing house and style guide. By the same token, it is important that the author maintain consistency throughout the work. In other words, you may choose to put character thoughts in italics only, but be sure you do that throughout the work.

A sample of popular recommendations for interior monologue:

• Chicago 14th: no absolute rule, but be consistent. Often, but not always, in quotations marks. Alternatives include italics.
• AbsoluteWrite (Cathy C’s manuscript formatting guide): italics, no quotes.
• Blood-Red Pencil (Maryann Miller): italics, first person, present tense.

Remember, any instance of italics in a published work actually calls for the text to be underlined in the manuscript.

        

Print this table out and plaster it on your desk. Better yet, make it your desktop wallpaper.

        

In “I would like to thank…,” “would like to” means “I’m doing it even as I speak.” But you won’t find that meaning of in dictionaries — at least, not anywhere you can find it, in any recognizable form. I believe this is called an “implicit performative utterance” — “performative” because the statement actually does what it refers to, and “implicit” because it doesn’t do it literally and directly, the way, for instance, “I hereby thank …” would.