Tuesday's Writer's Tip What's Your Style #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Style #writing

There are some authors who have such a distinct style of writing you could know they'd written those stories even without seeing their names.  So how do you develop your style and what does that have to do with revision?  I once found this site that I used several times. What you did was post a paragraph of your story and it would let you know whose style your writing favored. Since I write in a number of genres, I came up with four different writers that my style resembled. That's when I discovered I might have developed my own style. Or perhaps I hadn't but had a different style for each of my genres.

Your own style sets up the way you tell the story. Style shows the tone of the story. Given a short scenario to a number of authors, different stories would emerge. The time, place, characters mean different things to different people. This is the basis of style. The way you blend the words and the words you choose help set your style.

Style will keep the story flowing from beginning, through the middle and to the end.

Your style is developed through the stories you've read. This is especially true if you read many different writers in many genres. If you only read one kind of story and one type of author, your style will emerge with these qualities. Listening to the way people talk and the way their bodies react when they talk also helps develop your style. In the beginning, your style may reflect the last author you
read. Asyou read more and more and as you write more and more, your style will emerge. During the process of revision, your style will slowly let you change words, the length of sentence or the sequence of a scene and slowly your personal style will emerge.

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Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Style #MFRWauthor

Every writer develops a style that is unique to them. This part of writing can't be taught. So how does this happen? We all have times when we can tell who wrote a particular story without looking at the name on the cover. This can and does happen. I've had people tell me that they knew I wrote a particular story. Or during a critique session when I'm writing in a different genre, they can tell the story is mine.  This doesn't happen over night but the more you write, the more your style becomes clear. When I look back on early stories and I do mean early, I can see hints of my style but in those stories, it's crude. How many books did this take, you might ask? The answer is a gradual progression as more and more stories are written.

English can be taught. How to spell can be taught. But that rhythm you inject into your stories can't be taught. One way to develop style is through your choice of words. Overwriting as in using too many words to get the meaning you want to show can muddy the waters and the style.

Say you're my student and I look at your work and re-write every sentence. This is taking your style away. We all look at or hear parts of stories and want to rewrite them. If there are problems, showing the writer how to change this to make sense can be of value.

As your teacher, I could show you how to imitate the style of another writer but it would be wooden. I remember very early in my career before I was published attempting to imitate the writers I really enjoyed. Didn't work. The prose was wooden and the story boring.

There are the styles that are out of style. Would you try to imitate Charles Dickens or Jane Austin. Your stories wouldn't work in today's world. What reader wants to read paragraphs and paragraphs of description without getting to the gist of the story?

So instead of using any of these techniques, write and write and your style will develop. There will be more hints next week.

Tuesday's Inspiration - words by B. J. Chute

When I read the essay by B. J. Chute, I came across interesting ideas. The essay was titled What Makes A Fiction Writer. That's something I've been thinking about for years. I sort of feel I write fiction since writing non-fiction often hurts my head. So here is what was said.

"There are four qualities without which one cannot write fiction at all." What are the qualities B. J. Chute thinks are vital to becoming a writer of fiction?

Imagination is the first. Without being to imagine a character or set of characters interacting in a situation all one would be left with boring lists and details. Imagination is what carries the writer into a new and different world or a new slant on the present one.

Empathy is the second. Empathy is the ability to walk in another person's shoes. Empathy goes beyond sympathy. Using this quality allows the writer of fiction to step beyond the facts and enter the character or character's world and bring the reader along for the journey.

Style is the third. I'll have to admit this puzzled me for a time. Here style is said to be the way the story is expressed. Perhaps this is the same thing as voice and tone put together.

Patience is the fourth, Lord knows, a writer needs gallons of patience. There is patience when writing and putting words on the paper hoping to find the right way of expression. There is also patience after sending the story into the world of waiting to hear from an editor or an agent. There is also the need for patience to see the story take form in the electronic or paper version.  I would rate patience next to imagination.