Just curious as to what type of writing style people use. Now I'm not wondering what kind of genre you like, I'm asking how you write your stories. Do you use a lot of detail, humor what kind of narrating voice you use, that sort of thing. I prefer standard past-tense style narrating voice (As Megan walked into the room she could feel all eyes watching her) I usually use the standard style for more laid back kind of stories. But I also like to use the other style where the narrator is the main character's perception, and usually I do that in present-tense. (As I walk into the room, I can feel all eyes watching me.) I pretty much have humor in all of my stories. It's hard for me not to find the humor in things because that's just the kind of person I am. It's definately a challenge for me when I want to sit down and write an actual scary story, bereft of all humor. I like to make my writing sound kind of cool. Use short sentences and paragraphs. Almost like a poem. I won't do this through the whole story but definately as much as I can. Or I try to word a dramatic part in a way that it sounds pretty awesome, but not overboard. Where I'm effortless is my characters. I've been making up characters since I was 10, so I've gotten pretty good at it, as well as dialogue. But where I struggle at is my plot. Everytime I come up with a good idea I'll be writing and suddenly I'll start thinking about a plot and two days later I've decided it's a hopeless story. Does anybody here change writing styles for different genres?
For me, I like to use a lot of detail, and that's part of my problem in my writing is that I use too much detail and the story gets overworked. But when I edit, I end up getting a little less than what I needed and wanted, so it ends up a little both ways. I also use past tense a lot too, because I think present tense is just too confusing for me, but the problem with that is that I sometimes use present tense when I don't mean to.
I also tend to use short sentences. Often a single word. But mostly I use that for emphasis only. I find that I can't really write too much of a story unless I know there's some kind of twist coming up. There has to be something that gets my reader thinking in every story that I write, which can sometimes hurt my writing I think. Sometimes people just want entertainment. Description is a hard one for me - I either get bogged down with it or I don't have enough of it. I also find that I really want to explain EVERYTHING which can be bad. As for voice and tense. I'm also a past tense story teller for the most part. Although, I do like to write from the first person present every now and then. I was reading one of Hulls Raven's stories and was impressed by how BIG the scene he created was. I tend to be a very intimate in my writing so I would like to learn how to also write "long shots". zb
I have found that I like writing in the present tense for some reason. I'm not sure why, it just seems to work for me. It creates a sense of immediacy. I prefer a clean writing style, especially where short stories are concerned. I've learnt that "less is more" and try to cut out a lot of adverbs and adjectives that don't add anything to the story when revising.
I like writing in the stream of consciousness style. I fell that it is a more intimate form of writing.
Yeah, some people actually enjoy reading a lot of detail, even if it's not a story they're into, they get sucked in just by how much detail is put into it. There's this one veterean author who is famous for his lengthy detailed scenes and thinking up shit that was ahead of his time. Yeah, so he was a really good writer, a lot of detail worked for him- I guess. I've never read any of his work, just heard of him. Anyways, it's seems to me that only about (maybe) a quarter of the reading population prefers a lot of detail in their stories...but you got to do what you got to do. One thing that I don't reccomend doing is writing a large story using main character narration- because then when you begin writing sequences that don't have the main character you're forced to switch to standard narrating and the reader is switching from one style to the next. ...Maybe that's actually cool...is it? It bugs the hell out of me.
Just picking up on tense and point of view, I'd have said I don't have a preference and write using whichever tense and point of view felt right for the story. Some stories I've written multiple versions, changing the tense or point of view to see which I prefer. I looked back over 40 stories on my hard drive and found the following: 1st person, past tense, 10 1st person, present tense, 19 3rd person, past tense, 10 3rd person, present tense, 1 So, it looks as though I have a tendency to write first person, and often present tense. I wasn't aware of this. Sentence and paragraph length vary, as might be expected. Humour plays a part in some stories and not others. Some set out to be humorous, others have a touch of humour, others none at all. I tend to use fairly minimal description.
since i write in all mediums and write just about anything that takes words, i use whatever 'style' is most appropriate for whatever it is i'm writing at the time... the bulk of my work nowadays consists of philosophical essays and 'philosetry'... for those, my 'natural' style is casual and reader-friendly... you can see for yourself, by browsing my site... love and hugs, maia
In the past, I used a lot of third person and past tense, but now I find using first person and past tense feels most natural. My writing style doesn't change between fiction and non-fiction: I use metaphors in my narratives and reviews often, and my sentence structure is similar.
I lean heavily toward first person, past tense. Both of the stories I've sold are that. Both of my novels out on submission are first person, past tense as well. I've written a few short stories that are third person, past tense. Have not sold one yet. As far as detail, I tend to use just enough to spur on the reader's imagination. Humor appears only when it shows up/is sparked by the events or dialogue in the story. It's rarely planned. Terry
I suppose how I write would depend on your definition of style. For example: My first college professor was of the oppinion that most people tend to bend toward either falkner or hemmingway. I tend to lean more towards falkner, using more lengthy and descriptive language, riddled with various clauses and other things. As far as story telling, I would have to say I prefer third person limited omnisence and due to my excessive use of descriptive wordage, I have trouble getting the story to move along. Overall one of my favorite things to do to pass the time is to freewrite. I write about anything and anything that pops into my head. So, because of this, when I write much of work seems to be one single stream of conciousness and over time I've managed to give it direction. More often than not little blocks of freewriting on my computer end up rewritten as rough drafts or ideas represented in them will be included in other work. (btw- plz nevermind the bad spelling for now, i can not correct it at this computer as it does not support the forum spellcheck or have one of its own. I'll make it less of an eyesore later when I have use of my own computer again.)
