 Action/Adventure: July 13, 2011 Issue [#4503] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: Rock Out Your Writing In Style Edited by: NanoWriMo2018 Into the Earth  
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Style, like fashion changes, it morphs and so will yours the longer you write. Novice writers strive for style with awkward purposeful intention. Intermediates begin to trust their inner voices and relax a little. Polished writes know writing with style means letting down your guard and going for the jugular when appropriate. Style represents your voice, your personality. Style is how you talk to your readers. How you see them.
Whatever your approach, all authors want a unique style they hope captivates readers, holds them hostage, keeps them reading even while the laundry piles up, or the season finale of Modern Family blares from the back bedroom T.V. The good news, developing style happens naturally. Furthermore, there is no right or wrong in style. It's not dead or alive, white or black. It's creative expression. Smooth and enveloping.
The not-so-good news? well, um, work is involved. But it's writing work. And you're a writer, right? So it won't feel like requisitioning supplies, or generating revenue reports for your department head. Instead, some of it will be as fun as a dip in the pool after a two-mile hike in the woods.
Tips on working out your style:
Blog and/or journal - Give your muse the opportunity to have fun, play with words, create poetry, express in childlike fashion. Stretching your muse allows you to roll up your sleeves, dig in and get your fingers tapping at the keyboard. Think of a blog or jounal as a mini-vacation for your muse. One she gets to take daily or weekly. (lucky her).
Write - Submit a contest entry. Write a letter to your mom--she'll love you for it. Send an editorial to your local newspaper. Marking your weekly calendar with a weekly project forces you to start, revise, and finish. The process is vital when developing style.
Read - I know, you've heard this before; but, it bears repeating. Read the authors you love most, then read works by some of your not-so-favorite authors. Read for fun, but in the process, you'll inadvertantly pick up style techniques of other writers. Incorporating the practices of others into your own style allows you to add your own twist, therefore making it your own.
Read Aloud - Not just your own writing, but the writings of others. In a New York Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/opinion/16sat4.html "Some Thoughts On Reading Aloud," author, Verlyn Klinkenborg says, "reading is incomplete, impoverished, unless we are also taking the time to read aloud." Reading aloud pulls in more of your senses. It's physical. You notice the rhythm and rhyme of words.
Start with familiarity - Before you venture out into the unknown, write about what you know first. I'm not saying stay here. But start here. Picking assignments, subjects and stories you know alows you to jump in with both feet instead of doing untold amounts of research before you begin writing Word One.
Moreover, while you're writing and reading - both quietly and aloud, pay attention to the following:
How does the author construct his sentences and paragraphs?
 Does he use more verbs than nouns during descriptions?
How clear and concise are his sentences?
Is there more showing then telling?
Off you go now, working on your individual, unique writing styles. For more on writing style, read darkin's "Invalid Entry" for excellent tips on trimming down your sentences.
Until next time,
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StephBee  --Robin, I agree - "Keep it Real." If you can't visit, study maps, look at resources on the Internet - pictures tell a 1,000 words - look at pictures of the place you want to go. That's really helped me.
monty31802 --Very good advice in this Newsletter Robin. Research deffently helps the writer.
Lothmorwel  --I love writing fantasy and have been laughed at for saying I want it to be 'realistic'. I can't bear fantasy that goes too far and is hard to imagine. Details and references to things that also occur in real-life really ground a story and make it come to life. Forget wandering through a purple desert with snoochypids wrangling along, how about trudging through a mudflat with leeches clinging to you? Easier to read and understand, and thus enjoy.
jlbane --Great article. I've asked the question on different sites that seem to cling to the notion that the only way you can write accurate scenes is if you've been there. Thanks for not promoting this bad advice. Especially for the exotic locations we like to use so often. Unless you have the budget of Clive Cussler, world travel is not an option. So how do you come up with interesting details about places you've never seen. This is a trick I've found: I read Travel Blogs from sites such as travelpod.com and travelblog.com. The great thing is you get the first hand accounts, the funny stories and mistakes that travelers make, not some text book explanation of the contries GDP. |
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