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The theme for this week is ‘Author Life’, which I’m guessing I wrote up while I was exhausting or a little buzzed. I figure part of the challenge here is to figure out what I was talking about. Anyway, there are many aspects to the life of an author. These are pieces of our day/existence that might make us stand out from non-author/artist life. I’ll touch on a few this week like style, time, confidence, ‘big moment’, and influences. There’s a ton more, but these are the ones I want to bring up.
The biggest part of being an author is finding your style, voice, or whatever you want to call it. This is how you sound on paper/screen when you write. It’s a complicated aspect that is hard to describe because every author has their own interpretation of what it is. This is why every author is truly unique. Even if you’re going to try to emulate your favorite author, you’ll have your own tiny twist on it. This is why it can be hard to explain your style in simple terms. For example, I write in a present tense, 3rd person POV, dialogue and action heavy, flourished style. That is what I’ve developed over the years and I couldn’t really tell you where I got it from. Different parts appeared at different times.
A key point in a style is that it evolves over time. What you are doing now might not be what you do in a year or two. You could find a piece of writing that appeals to you and add it to your repertoire to make something new. As strange as it sounds, think of writing style as a Pokemon. It develops over time through experience and discovering new moves. It can evolve into something bigger and stronger than before too. Just don’t try to go out and have your style battle other styles. Also, do NOT put tiny creatures into air-tight balls and throw them at people. There might not be specific laws against it, but it falls under animal cruelty and assault . . . I guess.
Here is where you will find ‘trouble’ when it comes to style. There are many people out there who feel their style is better or that certain ones are bad. True, an author who couldn’t spell their way out of kindergarten or has the grammar skills of a wombat earn the criticism. Yet, those are not part of style because they tend to be across the board. You can’t say that misspelling words is how you roll, but you can say that using 1st Person POV is your zone.
So, when you find yourself being told that your style is wrong or crappy, what do you do?
Well, you could cry, eat enough ice cream to get your own zip code, go for the world record in nonstop swearing, or do something productive. I suggest that 4th option. It’s not even that difficult if you calm down and think about it. The person is entitled to their opinion, but that is what it is. Maybe your style can evolve from their criticism, but you shouldn’t change it entirely to suit a handful of people who enjoy a certain style. I did that once and it was terrible. This is why I say to stand by your style and let it grow in the way that you want it to grow. In the end, you have to be happy with what you wrote and the key to being proud of it is to claim your style.
I’m not going to put anything here about how to find your style or evolve it. I will talk about how mine came about and hope other authors share their story. In high school, I wrote ‘Immortal Wars: The Summoning’ and let some people read it. They told me that I swapped tenses all the time and to pick one. Well, I chose present tense because it felt natural and stuck with it ever sense. I found I was good at dialogue and action, so I put a focus on that. With every book, movie, or show I found, I added new ideas for characters and stories. So I couldn’t tell you where every piece came from. I did stumble a lot as I stated earlier. I rewrote ‘Beginning of a Hero’ once to appease some critics and it felt like I torn its heart out. Took me years to get it back to what it once was and I think I grew stronger from the incident. I realized I had to be me and I’ll play with other styles on the side like with ‘The Hopeteller’ and ‘Catalysts’. Yet, my core style will be what gives birth to Windemere and I stand by that.
Legends of Windemere 
Charles, I liked what you had to say, but I think style is something different. Writing in 1st or 3rd person is part of form, craftsmanship. I feel style is how you see the world. It is not how you construct that world, or reconstruct it but how you see it, are effected by, and what you do to breing that vision out is the words you use, the philosophy behind it and how they marry on the page. I don’t think one can conciously create a style. There are modes of action in which one is comfortable but they are only vehicles for your style. Style is vision. >KB
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That’s a definition I’ve heard before, but I hear stuff like tense, use if dialogue, and other parts of craftsmanship connected to style. One could also call it the author’s unique voice.
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Well, for example. Hemingway wrote in short sentences, clipped, sharp–while Faulkner wrote in very long drawn out setences, complicated drawn out, complex. You could stop there and say that was their style, but it is more a product of the way they saw the world. For Hemingway the world was black and white, either/or. For faulkner the world was a complicated place where truths and lies blended together and had to be sorted out if possible but not essential for that is the way the world was to him. Best>KB
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True, but many people call that their style. In fact, there are those who say a prose author is either a Hemingway Style or Faulkner Style. So there is at least some interweaving between style and voice that makes them both work in this regards. For many it’s mostly an issue of symantics.
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I’ll give you that. But speaking for myself I have a particular vision but not necessarilly a style or putting that down. I believe form must follow function. The difference is I think between us is you write fiction and I write poetry. While they are both writing they are very different visons of the world. So I guess we must agree to disagree but only on the fact that the principles behind our different writing is philosophical in nature. Best>KB
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I was thinking about that. Poetry and prose operate differently even though they’re both writing. The form of a poem effects the vision and vice versa in poetry. In prose, I could rewrite my books to a different tense/style and the vision will remain relatively untouched.
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“I had to be me”… that I think is the key that shapes the voice; it is only when we can find that courage that we have a vehicle to express style with any authenticity. Then it doesn’t matter in what manner you craft the writing, what tense or viewpoint, or through which character’s eyes and words you are writing your world… your vision spills out onto the page through the heart not the keyboard.
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I guess it matters more to readers. Many seem to ignore voice and authenticity. They go for the mechanics to explain the style. Perhaps with any art, the mechanics and the art combine to make the overall style.
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That is the craft and the art working together, I think. But it boils down to what makes us write… if we write with a view to having readers, or because we must… because we have a story inside that needs to get out.
All writers want to be read, of course! And hopefully enjoyed or appreciated… as we’ve discussed before, you aren’t going to please everyone no matter how you try.
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Interesting. I wonder if the style changes as an author’s reasons evolve. One can start with fame/money then gain a love of simply doing the craft and the opposite. Would the style demonstrate the author’s change in core vision?
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I think it would probably show through quite clearly…but then, I don’t know many who are daft enough to spend their life at a keyboard without a love for the writing itself.
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A very good point. I see lots of ‘rules’ about writing and what you should and shouldn’t do, and whilst they are there to help better your craft, if everyone wrote as you are ‘supposed’ to write, then it would be rather boring. No one would have their own writing voice, or style, and that is what helps make a story something special 🙂
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Excellent point. Funny how there are so many rules that are more guidelines.
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Some really great advice Charles, Thanks.
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You’re welcome. 🙂 How is the Book Review Challenge going? Looks very successful from what I’ve seen.
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Very interesting post, and very true. Every author has to develop their own style — which, I think, is often very similar to how the author talks. At least, I know that’s what my style is like 🙂 I’m trying to think of how I developed my style … I think it was really just a combination of taking the books I read, the way I write, and the tone of the book I want to create, and just sort of mashing them together. As for people saying they don’t like a particular style … I mean, that’s the risk you run with using an unusual style. You’ll find lots of people who like the style … and you’ll find lots of people who’ll be turned off your books because they don’t like the style. For me, there’s a sci-fi writer named CJ Cherryh who’s written about a gazillion books, beloved by gazillions more. I’ve tried to read several of her books, and for whatever reason, I just can’t get into them. I don’t know what it is about her style, and I acknowledge that her plots sound absolutely fascinating, but for some reason her style just turns me off. And the important thing there is I don’t expect her to change her style — I just happen not to like it.
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I have a few fantasy authors like that. Everyone develops their own taste, so you’re not going to like everything.
Love how you say that you don’t expect her to change her style because there are a bunch of readers who seem to think that way. They hate it, the author must change it, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. Strange mentality.
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I mean, in some cases a style change might be necessary. That would be a case where the author really wants to make it in mainstream publishing, but their style is way out there and doomed to do terribly in mainstream publishing. So they’d make the conscious effort to change their style to fit with the type of books they want to sell. But I don’t think that happens very often.
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I see it happen with topics. Authors jump on a trend to ride the wave with the intent to write what they really want when they’ve made it big.
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Once again I was fooled by the initial post (volunteers needed) into thinking that you’d gone on vacation! Finally, I looked below that post and discovered new posts!
Thanks for this post. How very true that an author’s style is unique to himself or herself. And as you mentioned, an author needs to discover that style and not let others dissuade him/her from it.
I’m still in the exploration stage as far as my style goes. I didn’t try to discover it until I stopped trying to copy other writers whose work I admired (like Terry Pratchett). But all of my advisers in grad school urged me to work to discover with my own style.
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Yeah. That’s why I mentioned ‘New Stuff Below’ in the title of the other one. Last time people seemed to not scroll down even though I’ve never missed a day since I started in 2012. 🙂 Makes me wonder what would happen if I did vanish.
I think we’re always in an exploration stage with style because it’s eternally growing. New tricks and ideas will appear. As for copying other writers, most of us have been there. Tends to be how many start out.
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An awesome post, with great advice. I’ve come to the realization that my style involves going with 1st person, present tense perspective. Though I try to change a few things (level of description, and vocabulary) up, since I switch narrators. Also, I’ve started blending graphic novel pages with prose. It’s time consuming, but I kind of like it.
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That’s a really cool idea. I have no artistic talent, so I couldn’t pull that off. Very impressive that you can do that.
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Good point about standing by your voice, your style, your viewpoint even if someone doesn’t like it. When I get feedback from beta readers, I’m careful to differentiate between things that really aren’t working in the story and things that are just a matter of taste and viewpoint.
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That’s an important lesson. Takes some authors years to figure out the difference.
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Amen on style. I take a few hits for mine, but at the end of the day it is me.
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Same here. Stand tall!
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Great post. My style is marmite, people love it or loathe it but as the previous poster said, it’s me.
Cheers
MTM
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Never tried marmite. Keep thinking it’s a rodent.
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🙂
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If someone told me my style was wrong or crappy, I would thank that person sweetly and not ask for their comments again. A critique like that is so broad and negative that it’s impossible to get anything useful out of it.
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Yeah. It typically only translates to ‘not my cup of tea’. The only time I’ve argued that someone’s style was ‘wrong’ has been when a person tried to convince that bad spelling was a style.
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Spelling and grammar as “style?” You have to stick to your guns on that one!
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Guess I have to give the person credit for determination on that.
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