Question for the ST Authors: Is there a ST Style Guide?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by JonnyQuest037, Mar 30, 2020.

  1. JonnyQuest037

    JonnyQuest037 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Trek Authors: Does Pocket send you any kind of internal Style Guide document to ensure that certain things stay consistent throughout the novel line?

    I know that you can always look up things in resources like the Star Trek Encyclopedia or Memory Alpha. I'm talking about more picayune things like "Always make sure that you spell 'USS Enterprise' without periods in the 'USS' and with the word 'Enterprise' in italics" or "Please try to keep your book somewhere between eight and 25 chapters." Stuff like that.

    Just curious.
     
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  2. David Mack

    David Mack Writer Rear Admiral

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    Not really.
     
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  3. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Nope. And, honestly, I can never remember if Sickbay is capitalized or not. :)

    Thank god for editors and copyeditors.
     
  4. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Personally, with regard to style, I've always found it more than a little bit ridiculous that "Starship" is italicized. I mean, that's about like referring to a certain museum-ship docked at the old Alameda naval base as the Aircraft Carrier Hornet. Or to the museum-ships docked at San Francisco's Pier 45 as the Submarine Pampanito and the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O'Brien.
     
  5. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Sidebar: I've been noticing in some of the British news services a tendency with water-going ships and boats to put the name of the ship first and the function afterwards. EG: "The Coral Princess cruise ship". Which disturbs me. And no italics or boldfacing on the ship name either.
     
  6. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    OK, I feel like an idiot right now, because now that you mention it, I can't remember. Is it capitalized?
     
  7. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

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    I'm 90% sure that's for trademark reasons. You can't put a legal protection on the word "enterprise," or even the name "Enterprise," but "Starship Enterprise" as a unit, that can be legally defended. And since part of trademark law is demonstrating that you use and defend the mark as yours exclusively, consistently making it clear that "starship" and "Enterprise" go together as a single unit, and "starship" isn't just a noun adjunct,* marks it as a singular quantum of legally distinct information that allows CBS a leg to stand on to put a stop to non-Star Trek or otherwise ersatz starships Enterprise. So that's why that usage would happen in the body text of novels, and not just cover copy or promotional materials that say Starship Enterprise™ or Starship Enterprise™.

    *Thanks, Google!
     
  8. Mysterion

    Mysterion Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Here's how the US Navy Style Guide explains it:
    Always bugs me to see ship names written otherwise in novels and in the media. And there are a couple of media outlets that just seem to refer to ANY navy vessel as a "battleship".
     
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  9. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Except that the Frigate USS Constitution (the one in Boston Harbor) is still USS Constitution (most likely by virtue of the fact that it is still in commission, and still crewed by U.S. Navy personnel), despite the fact that it was built long before 1909 (in the 1790s).

    In both of my two visits to the ship, I did formally request "permission to step aboard" before stepping of the brow.
     
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  10. JonnyQuest037

    JonnyQuest037 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thanks for the answers, guys. I been wondering about this sort of stuff while working on my ST Timeline. I've typically been going with "USS Enterprise" and capitalizing "Stardate" and "Starship", but like Greg, I don't know if I should capitalize stuff like "Sickbay" or "Chief Medical Officer."
     
  11. Dayton Ward

    Dayton Ward Word Pusher Rear Admiral

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    Perhaps the closest thing we have comes in the form of the poor soul tasked with copyediting the novels. We've been fortunate to have the same person doing them for quite some time, and I imagine he keeps some kind of reference for his own use, as he'll make references about consistency in terminology when I read his notes. Either that, or he has the freakish ability to remember all of that crazy stuff.

    And before anyone asks, I don't believe this is anything which is likely to be made publicly available. :)
     
  12. JonnyQuest037

    JonnyQuest037 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Oh, sure. I was just curious if such a document existed. Of course it would need to kept internal. :)
     
  13. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    What if...
    *slides $20 across table*
     
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  14. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    US Navy Style Guide...okay...that could be useful.
     
  15. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, there's an old Pete Barbutti bit. He was recalling a conversation he'd had with a man in a U.S. Navy uniform. He'd asked him what class of ship he was stationed on, and the reply was "Frigate." He acknowledged to the audience that it was a legitimate class of naval ship:
    (He then went on to bring up other words that could be taken the wrong way. Like "Torque," and like a word the Ford Motor Company stamps on its parts, "FoMoCo.")
     
  16. Jim Johnson

    Jim Johnson Writer Premium Member

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    Yeah, our fearless copyeditor maintains a fairly comprehensive style guide that he uses on all his novel copyedits. He adapted the same style guide for us to use on the Star Trek Adventures RPG. I'm fortunate to know him and was able to draw on his expertise for the game line to give some consistency between the novels and the RPGs. Most readers probably don't notice, but our CBS review team sure did. :)
     
  17. KRAD

    KRAD Keith R.A. DeCandido Admiral

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    Both "Starship Enterprise" and "U.S.S. Enterprise" are trademarked by CBS/Paramount/Viacom/whatever in those formats, as are the other ship names (Defiant, Voyager, Discovery) so they have to be rendered that way. For consistency, all other ships are designated the same way, but it's only actually required for the "lead" ships.
     
  18. Mysterion

    Mysterion Vice Admiral Admiral

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  19. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Thank you kindly.
     
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  20. DS9forever

    DS9forever Commodore Commodore

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