Okay guys! Welcome to my next post. This week’s been pretty crappy but I’m glad that I’m still managing to get this post up on time. I had the forethought to write at least half of the post last week after writing last weeks post so most of it was already written. Way to go last Saturday JM! So hopefully this post doesn’t sound too scatter brained because it was written in two parts. Sorry if it does. Usually I write them all at once. But here goes nothing!
Secrets of Plot: The Exposition Part 2
The next element of the introduction that I’m going to introduce is the writing style. Now I know that a lot of people will ask me what a writing style is. An analogy that I use when trying to explain it to others is that your writing style is like wearing clothes. You dress is different styles to get different messages across to different people. You dress in a suit or a nice skirt when you want to look professional. You dress in certain clothes regularly and that becomes how people recognize you. That becomes your personal style. A writing style is similar to that. Here’s what real English teachers say about writing style.
“Style in literature is the literary element that describes the ways that the author uses words — the author's word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and sentence arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and meaning in the text.”
In other words, your writing style is the way that you write. Every writer writes their story in a different way. Sometimes it depends on the things in the definition. The bigger words the author uses the more intelligent their character or narrator sound. The descriptiveness of the story shows how you as the writer or your character observes the world around them. The way that your story is written should fit you character. When you’re writing about a cynical character all of your writing sounds cynical. You wouldn’t describe the market as vibrant and full of life. You would describe it as dark, noticing the merchants cheating the shoppers instead of the vibrant clothes covering their stalls. The sentences will be short, blunt, and to the point. But if your character is curious and joyful your writing style will be the exact opposite. Sometimes your writing style changes as your character changes.
Sometimes the writing style is the way the sentences are written. In the book the Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen the whole book is written in an accent. The whole thing. Slang and all. This gives the writing a sense of character that it wouldn’t have otherwise. The writing is the characters, and this is the writing style of A.C. Gaughen.
Often times my writing style is about surprising my reader or making certain points. My writing could go on and on and on and on and on into endless nothing but when I’m trying to make a point it becomes a new paragraph.
Like now.
I started several new, one sentence paragraphs to make my point about certain things.
Just like this.
I would also add to the earlier definition of style that sometimes your point of view also matters when developing a writing style. In Megan Whalen Turners books her characters are always in first person. However, *warning: spoilers ahead so if you want to not hear spoilers skip to the end of this paragraph* her writing is always an unreliable narrator as well. This is her writing style. First person, unreliable narrator.
One of my favorite points of view which is very hard to master is second person. It’s really hard to find a writer who uses second person in a book so when someone does it becomes a large part of their writing style. For example, in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern parts of the book are written in second person. Here’s a bit from the book.
“What kind of circus is only open at night?” people ask. No one has a proper answer, yet as dusk approaches there is a substantial crowd of spectators gathering outside the gates.
You are amongst them, of course. Your curiosity got the better of you, as curiosity is wont to do. You stand in the fading light, the scarf around your neck pulled up against the chilly evening breeze, waiting to see for yourself exactly what kind of circus only opens once the sun sets.
But don’t think too much about your writing style. Most of the writers that I know don’t even know what their writing style is. They just write how they think their character would write it and only outside observers can notice a style. Sometimes you’re a writer like me whose style never changes. My writing style is always the same no matter what book I write. What stops them from being boring is my Voice. Which I will write about at a different time.
But that’s all I have to say about writing style in the introduction of your story. Next week I’m going to finish of the introduction section by writing about introducing the story at the beginning. I know that sounds a little weird but you’re going to have to stick with me for this one. It’s going to be great. So as always,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!