Have you ever wondered?
Wondering what type of writer you are? Be it the first, third or narrative speaker?
As I look over the writings of various authors that I would like to emulate I find myself asking, 'What type of writer am I? Where does my writing style fit in?'
By this I mean my writing style. Not so much about the first or third person, but more of how I structure the sentences, the selection of certain words vs spreading out the meaning. How compact vs length.
Yes I do catch myself (later on) finding that I don't like the structure overall. I find myself re-looking and saying there are to many; 'had', 'to', 'and', and so on. These may be in the form of speech vs descriptions.
To tell me that it comes from both experience and time, I understand. Which given in this day and age is becoming harder as we find ourselves wanting to fly at supersonic speed over even the littlest of things and forget to just go outside and enjoy the moment.
The days of 'idle minds' is being whittled down to a 'constant need for speed'. But I'm starting to digress.
My point is 'What type of writing style' am I developing? Is it one of the many types that writer 'poo poo' saying the structure is all wrong? Or is it a middle ground of where I'm hearing its a bit of mixing of past and present pretense as I tell the story and none are willing to tell me of my 'learning' mistakes, only to find once published and left aside (which I have done on several stories to re-look) only to find I have still failed to capture both clerical and structural errors.
Yes I try to give it time like a bottle of wine. But even some bottles do not ferment correctly or are just plain sour.
I wish to learn. The question is 'Am I on the right path?'
Ibi
Comments
For what it's worth, I've wondered pretty much the same thing
Except my question is, "Am I strictly a short-story writer, or would I be able to do long-form stories as well?" I have plenty of ideas that beg to be turned into novels, but I get bogged down trying to write them.
Livin' A Ragtime Life,
Rachel
Rachel great observation
Rachel, I've been kinda wondering the same thing lately . . . I mean, I started writing mostly short stories by lately they've gotten longer and longer. I don't know if this is good or bad; I guess I'm growing and changing as a writer.
It does mean that it takes longer to post a new story and there are times when I was writing "Bodyguard" where I had to step away and write something short, simple, and fun so that I could return to my longer story feeling refreshed.
Anyway your comment sortta resonated with me.
Cheers
Zapper
…"Yes I try to give it time like a bottle of wine."
Trust me… the bottle of wine helps :)
In a sort of answer to your question might I pose a question in return?
Which is more important to you, knowing what type of writer you are, or, knowing that you delight your readers and you are happy you have told a great story?
Every author makes truly horrible mistakes in the rush to get the story out of their head and onto paper. We can't help it.
Then, on editing, we catch some of them, but because we know and love the story our eyes skim over others. That's why professional proof and copy editors are often better paid than most authors. :)
To give you (and anyone else) heart take a look at this submission by Jane Austen (http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/literary-history/art378628)
Most of all, have fun.
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
Right path.
For the record, I do know what type of writer I am stylistically. I am a first person stream of consciousness writer, and while I can write other styles, it'll be my best going forward.
As to the right path, you're on it. Always question your path, but never refuse to walk it. Find errors? I still have people pointing mine out, as well as spotting them myself months later. That's how I, how anyone, gets better. It's a journey, it never ends. You won't ever see that magical destination where you feel you can stop for good. Breaks and rest are fine, but if you ever feel that stopping urge... run from it as hard as you can.
That and having a fresh set of eyes look at your stuff never hurts. Grammar programs and spellcheck can still only do so much, for all that they have evolved.
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I know a proof reader
I know of a proof reader that has helped part the Red Sea and still drowned in its waters in its aftermath. For not only would I send him one set, I would then send forth another rain of blood before he could ever get back to me with the first.
I pray for his sanity as I'm sure he could not keep up with the changes of directions that I paved before him.
Of course he has been very busy himself and I still love to read his works.
I am not a fast writer, nor
I am not a fast writer, nor am I a slow writer. I am a half fast writer.
I'm Writing
I have no idea whether I'm writing right, but at least I know that I'm writing. When I was writing elsewhere over 15 years ago, I discovered that my stories were generally getting longer and longer, and gaps between posted stories got longer and longer -- until gaps measured literally in years. Now I've started up again, and I've discovered that I'm able to write both long and short stories. And the gaps have shrunk as well, at least for the short stories. For example, my most recent posted story was posted -- how long ago?
I often find myself twisting my mind into Moebius strips, or the same type of bottle. That's partly Bikini Beach's and reality-shifts' fault. If you find your protagonist (especially in 1st-person viewpoint) sitting at a table with a pair of friends, where one friend is at Bikini Beach but the other is in his basement -- you're in serious trouble.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
As long as a piece of string
There are so many ways of putting words together there must be an almost infinity of different styles of writing. Someone once said about my writing that it was like a Carry On film! So I guess that's my style but probably not described in quite the way you expected.
But what is nothing to do with style is getting it right - making certain that your English is correct and your work is not littered with mistakes.
But there are other types of mistakes one often sees in stories here, such as starting a story with background. These kinds of things are key to attracting or putting off readers.
I guess the most fundamental question is do you write just for yourself or do you try to attract readers to read your work? Everything else flows from the answer to that question.
I guess
I guess what I'm trying to determine is where my writing fits in. From the manner that I'm going with this story, is it worth posting to other sites? And if so, which? Sites that would be both beneficial to both me and those that read them. Not that there are those that don't comment but I've allowed myself to be sheltered from doing a better search. To many pay to view and others that don't cater to my specific needs.
I'm starting to wonder if even posting such a story at FM is worth the effort it (and I'm not dishing the site overall) I'm finding that the site it once was is becoming that of something less appealing.
And I know I'm a slow contributor to writing stories
Sorry about the rant.
The Storyteller
The first thing you need to ask yourself is, “Do I want to be a writer, or a storyteller?”
Big Closet has plenty of room for both. Neither is inferior to the other.
Writers concern themselves with technique. Storytellers concentrate on entertaining their audience and couldn’t care less about the nuances of writing.
If you want to be a writer, you have to decide what authority you’re going to listen to about style.
If you’re under my mentorship you would hear about starting the story with the first sentence, which has already been mentioned in this thread.
I would caution you to appeal to the senses.
There would be mention of getting to your alternative universe within the first ten to fifteen percent of the story.
We would talk about stimulus/response chains that allow the reader to guess what will happen next throughout the story.
We would talk about dozens of other things that make the reader’s experience much better.
Or, you could be a storyteller and probably be just as popular or more on this site.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)