A writing style is obviously what sets one author apart from another. An authors writing styles is the determining factor in whether I continue to read past Page 1 of a book or not. Regardless of how good a story might be, I find some well known published authors styles are simply not interesting. Here are some examples; George Lucas Star Wars - painful ! LOTR - difficult ! Harry Potter - brilliant ! Tom Browns School Days - droning! To kill a Mockingbird - Awesome ! Twlight - ok thats not literature! Ok so you may not agree, but stay with me ... Have writing styles evolved over the years? Is there a more "acceptable" style nowadays for childrens fantasy that is more appealing to the general audiences? Can you characterise styles of writing ?
The best writing style is your writing style. There are many, many guidelines, and yes they have evolved over the years and continue to do so. But the personal style you yourself develop as you write is what is often referred to as your writing voice. There are good writing practices, and poor writing practices. But in between there are myriad variations. Pick a couple of your favorite contemporary authors in the same genre. Can you see the differences between their individual writing styles? Hopefully you can. Don't imitate them, but read from asd many writers as you can. Pay attention to techniques they use, and learn from them, but find your own voice. That is much easier if you don't focus too much on one favorite author.
The list you have here is a range of stuff, so I'm not sure if you're particularly interested in children's books, or style in general. If you're especially concerned about writing to a niche market (like children's) I'd recommend you read all the best sellers. Being familiar with the classics is helpful, too, in order to see how "today's" hot stuff compares. You can Google children's best selling books and begin to sort out what's "making it." Same for any other particular genre. Otherwise, "style" is just as Cogito describes--it's your own or it's nothing, and especially so if it's something that would be considered "Literature (with a capital L)."
Your style works best. It is influenced by your favorite authors, no doubt about that, but it will still be a little unique in whatever way which is an element that can grasp a reader
lucas is a screenwriter, not a novelist... the novelizations of his screenplays were written by his two co-authors... and novelizations of movies are notoriously badly written... tom brown was written in the 1850s and lotr between 1937 and 1949, by a guy who was born in the previous century, so it's a given that they'd be in a much different style than what people nowadays are used to... of course, just as our speaking styles have... we don't talk the way they did back in the mid-19th century, do we?... or the same as people did in the middle ages?... so why should we write the same?... how could there not be?... see reply above... don't know what you mean by 'characterize'... explain what you mean by it, and i'll give you an answer...
In a sense styles have changed but then so has the way everyday people speak to one another. The English language has evolved and so too must our writing. American's are busy people and constantly rushing around so it's no wonder that many prefer straight forward writing like Stephenie Meyer or Orson Scott Card. Long winded writers or writers that use a style too different from what we're used to in our daily lives tend to lose our interest.
There are definitely authors who have similar styles. So, for example, I could say that authors A and B write in one style while authors C and D write in another. If you want a real life example, then I suggest taking a look at southern US writers. A lot of them have similar styles.
