Everything that you do, you do it your own way (style), whether you are dancing, an athlete or writing. But any dancer or any athlete would tell you that this style has to be discovered. No matter what yourexperience might be as a writer, you need to discover your style and use it to your advantage.
Now, if you are already a writer and are constantly writing in your personal journal, stories, etc, you might have already discovered your own writing style and feels good and comfortable when you write. If writing for you has become some kind of a second nature, some kind of a daily activity, then you have probably discovered your writing style. But I suggest you to still read these tips as you might learn something new.
Now for those of you that are still searching for their writing styles, here is a first advice: Do not try to imitate an author! When you write, try to keep it simple, try to be yourself, don't try to be perfect, and certainly don't try to write like another author.
Most aspiring writers and beginners will try to write the way that they speak. My advice is to avoid this at all cost. You might think that the reader is going to understand you easier this way, but most of the times you will lose your reader. You need an amazing talent and I would even say a miraculous talent to be able to write this way and be understandable by your readers. It's true that the way you speak, even though it's nice to “hear”, might not be appropriate when you write.
One of the difficult things to do when you write is to make sure that you are not repeating yourself, repeating the same word. This is particularly hard for everyone. The piece of advice that I can give you, and this advice is from an author named Patrick du Boisbaudry, is to use a synonyms dictionary. That means if you are really tempted to use a word and think that you really have to use that word in your sentence, you can use a synonym to replace it. By doing that, you will not lose the meaning you tried to give to your sentence, but you will add more variety in your text. This advice sounds very basic, but not many writers are doing that or have even thought about doing that.
Finally, no matter how hard it is for you to discover your style, you need to “be yourself” when you write. If you do that, you will certainly find out your own style one day or another. That is what will make your readers feel that you actually had fun when you wrote. Your readers need to be able to feel your personality when they are reading what you have written, and that is why you should not emulate an author. When a reader is reading an author he wants to, indirectly, “get in touch” with the author. So, be spontaneous when you write and you will have more fun by doing that and so your readers. That is the way to give a soul (your soul) to what you are writing.
In : Writing Tips & Guide
Tags: "writing style" "find your writing style" "how to find your writing style" "style of writing"
blog comments powered by Disqus