yeah i'm like that too, Show, more so about how i word things, always questions if too much colour, too many this and thats and then too little, urghhh
I think we all get a little frustrated at our work because we expect more from ourselves than is realistic. What exactly is "great prose" supposed to look like? What exactly is a "great story" supposed to look like? (Resist the temptation of posting a link to something that you feel is either--believe me, I know that we all have prose and stories that we think are great.) When I get frustrated at my writing, I guess it's because I expect it to sound somehow wonderful, like the clouds parted and my manuscript just dropped out of the heavens. I expect every line to somehow drip with meaning and empyreal perfection. Then I stop and laugh at myself. It's healthy. What I find brings me back down to earth is reading another writer's work, especially one that I admire. I've found myself reading and saying to myself, "This isn't really that much better than mine, if at all." There are certainly some authors that were masters of the written word, but there are still a wealth of people out there who didn't like their work. Whether you understand or just think they're ignorant buffoons, a lot of people don't really appreciate Shakespeare, despite how praised he is by so many "experts". Those same people may think Twilight or Harry Potter are the best things ever. Is that right? Is it wrong? All that matters is that some people like your work: namely, your target audience. Don't worry about those that don't get it, those that refuse to get it, and those that are too snobbish to even take a look at it if you're not already famous for something. If you have a good story to tell, it'll be pretty hard to ruin it. Believe in your ability to write it, take your time, and improve yourself as much as you can as you go along.
I really hate just about every way I try to word something. It always comes off feeling bad to me. It just always seems to be amateur to me.
So this is a problem I have dealt with for a while, My style of writing isn't really here nor there. It doesn't fall under any categories; it doesn't flow like poetry or have a well outlined plot that makes it a short story. It's not a free flow of thought either, it has emotion and a point and usually a pretty neat concept behind it, but just nothing to do with anything and no defined purpose or category to fall under. How do I learn to structure my writer or accept it for what it is? Do I need to conform to classic poetry or does it have a place in literature that I am jsut unaware of. If I ever write a book I think it would be neat to have it written in connected but seperate pieces written in my style, but other than that I am just lost as to how to make my writing something
I'm not sure what you mean by your writing not falling into a category. It sounds like you write essays, which are a style into themselves. Perhaps not though. If you've completed your reviews and have something posted I would love to read it to get a sense of what you mean. More importantly though, why should you make you're writing something? This is something I've had trouble dealing with. Authors who want their work to do something. Poems with meaning. Plays that are trying to change the world. Stories that are written as responses to previous literary movements. Write whatever you feel like writing, don't try to make it do something. Don't try to make it fit anything. Just write.
Addicted what if writing about those things is what gives the writer joy? A lot of my short stories I write to make a point. It's what I enjoy doing. It is exciting to think of a cool story that at the same time teaches something. Or asks a taboo or important question. Gets the reader thinking about something,.
Architectus: I think you just made Addicted's point, though. You think of a cool story to tell, and you tell it, as opposed to trying to force a cool story out of yourself, struggling to come up with one. I'm not saying that this is what the OP's dilemma is, though. themotions: Are you saying your writing doesn't fit a particular genre? Or are you saying you write in sort of a stream-of-consciousness mode that's neither story or poetry in terms of structure?
A story can't make a point in my opinion. It can have a theme, but it can't make an argument. No matter what the story is about, issues will be raised. If the reader wants to look deeper they can. If they don't, they won't have too. If you want to make a point write an essay. If you want to change the world write a manifesto. If you want to tell a story, than write one. If you want to explore the creativity of language, write a poem. If you just want to write and don't have any goal, than do it. Certain styles have certain purposes and it just doesn't make sense to try to do something else in those styles. It won't achieve the goal effectively and it will most likely ruin the piece.
Oh, man. But I love The Fountainhead, and that's basically a manifesto. themotions, I would just write whatever you want to write. Look at Danielewski. Your writing style couldn't be any stranger than his.
I disagree. If a novel is *really* well-written, it will change you emotionally through its theme. Therefore it's made a point because it affected you on an emotional level enough to change in one way or another. That's what really *great* literature does. ~Lynn
Orhan Pamuk, one of the author's I'm focusing on right now, combined the tone found in Sufi texts with his 'natural' writing style to create his own very unique signature style. I think style can be how you write right now, or it can be fabricated through paying close attention to how you're writing. Style is composed of many factors, including your tone, choice of words, etc; and if you work enough at it, you can create a new style of your own. It would be the same as getting into the head of one of your characters and writing as you'd think the character would speak. Like, if you are from the south and you want your writing to sound like a New Yorker wrote it, then pretend you are a made up character from New York and you're writing as that character. Well, that's one way you can change your style. I'm pretty sure some authors who write for magazines have to change their style to fit the norm of the magazine. Can't have polar opposites, otherwise the magazine would be all over the place.
What's your writing style. I wasn't sure if this belonged here or in the general discussion thread, but anyways... Just about every writer has a unique style, so what is your style? I use a lot of dialogue (though this could be due to the fact that I'm better at that than action scenes ), I tend to be really descriptive of the characters as compared to the enviroment, I go into first person to show what the character is thinking, and my action scenes are usually very direct with a lot of verbs. Edit: whichever mod moved this here, thanks. I didn't know that this thread existed.
My style is all over the place, if I'm honest. In some cases I write far too much description, when it isn't particularly necessary, and in others too much dialogue when description is needed. Mostly however, I concentrate on character development, weaving personalities and emotions with quite a bit of internal dialogue. I never concentrate on just one character, normally when I write there is more than one, which sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't. What is really embarrassing is when I go back to a project and completely forget what the characters idiosyncrasies are, what their personality is like, and I end up botching the entire thing. Oh well, c'est la vie and all that.
Style? Usually it depends on my mood. When it comes to poetry, let me contrast a personal opinion with a quote from Contact, "Some celestial event. No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea.". The apex of a poet's potential lies in the ability for his imagination to exceed his passive and active vocabulary combined a hundredfold. That being said, you can say that I use creativity to my advantage, and the ambiguity of my style is my greatest strength. I once studied in a school whose main purpose was to 'unlock our imagination'. It's grown on me, and I tend to need to deviate from the vogue that other writers have set before me. But a good poet would be able to consolidate his thoughts into written form, and that's where vocabulary comes in. Colloquialism is another key element when you want to avoid pompous talk. I also insist that evoking the reader's emotions (if not tickling his mind) is mandatory in a poem. You'll never want to come up with a stale and insipid wall of text, just for the sake of bloviating. I write to express, not to impress.
I try to write so that it stays interesting through out. I dont do info dumps, but I'm pretty descriptive. If something cant be told through actions or sumed up in dialog or a simple paragraph, I leave it out. I've read books that try to explain alot in the midst of telling the actual story, and to be honest, I get bored. I dont discriminate on first or third, just which fits best. (I wrote most of this novel in first, and rewrote the enitre thing in third because it was better) I use simple language, because I feel if you cant write a good story in simple words, then it's sure as heck not going to sound better with bigger ones that not all can understand. I've learned to simplify and take out crap that's filler, and I no longer try to reach a word count, rather just make a good story. The three people that have read it says its like watching a movie in your head, if that makes sense to anyone else but me. It's what I was going for. Oh, and I write comedy/drama mixed together. I admire scifi writing, but I have yet to tackle it. I am very creative, just not in that way. I applaude those who can create an entire universe with words.
I'm just the opposite of the thread author: I like to write in a way that makes the reader have to think in order to understand what's being said. It's not obvious at all from just a casual inspection of my words on the paper. I've been criticized for my writing style: "I'm really not following you," or "What exactly are you trying to say." I've been told. Writing should be clear, concise, and to the point I know. Why don't I give in to that I wonder? I want my writing to have a hidden meaning, a deep and profound message only visible between the lines and only so after the reader is forced perhaps to re-read it several times with the final sentence in the story capturing the essence of the point I'm trying to make.
I hold the reader's hands in mine, my nose almost touching theirs, and speak to their heart with my disgusting mouth.
I just write a lot of boring jumbo. I haven't unlocked my creativity yet. I tend to write in the past tense, I am rubbish at writing in the future/present tense. I like to write from my heart and write about what is bothering me but make all these things come from somebody else's mind.. if you get me.
I don't have a writing style to speak of yet. Currently I'm trying not to hate every sentence that I put on a page. Everything I write seems very monotonous and lame at present. I need to improve before I spiral even further into this goddamn...style angst? :')
I vomit words on to paper, take out all the disgusting chunks, then people call it writing. To me it'll always be vomit.
I write serious with a sarcastic tone at times, useing haunting description for both locations and emotion, I like my characters to be well described, I have to write dialogue several times before it is right. A lot of my story is made up of the thoughts of the character.
I think I like this description. My writing is very light and humor-oriented, even in serious moments. Mostly because my main characters tend to be lighthearted people; I would be so depressed if I had to write about a person who's serious all the time. The story I'm working on now features an MC who is a carbon copy of myself, and as such, it is loaded with humor, sarcasm, and unspoken mockery of other people's minor problems. It's in first person.
I remember a writer who once advised people to reserve special writing styles for special situations. However, the writer didn't elaborate on this. This sounds like a good idea. You know, save the best for when it counts. Yet, I can't think of how this could be done. Well, I brainstormed for a bit, but didn't come up with any good tactics. Monologue, rhyming, etc. These could be dangerous if not executed properly. Has anyone got any tips on this? Could you recommend any authors who are skilled at applying a unique style when the situation calls for it? Thank you.
