Stylistically Speaking

Sometimes, the thing that is the biggest pain is finding your writing style. Some writers have insanely distinct writing styles, think Lemony Snicket with his wry humor, or Charles Dickens with his depressing situations. My point is, writing style is a lot of what makes people (or me, at least) like certain books. So, how do you figure out what writing style fits you? It's not the easiest thing in the world. This is something that takes a while to figure out, it's not a snap decision. There's some quote that's either from Anne Perry or Don Maass about not imitating your favorite authors, and it's bugging me that I can't find it. Anywho, when you're developing your writing style, it's not just about what's easiest, it's also about what feels the best.

When I write in a more humorous style, with quirky words, I feel like I like my writing much better then when I write 'normally'. My normal writing is very average, nothing special, some interesting words, some interesting sentences here and there, but nothing special. I get that some other people might like it, but I don't feel great about it. When I look back on it, I think "eh, it's fine." But when I look back on something with the humor and quirky-ness that I so desire, I think "Woah, this was written by me?!"

I'm not through developing my writing style, but I think I have a good idea about what I want to include in my writing and how I want to deliver it.

Just remember one thing when trying to develop your style, don't imitate your favorite authors. Don't be a carbon copy, a reader might think it as a "been there, done that" sort of book, and it won't be fun. Learn from the authors that you love, look up how to use the words that they use, think of why they write like they do, even research them, it helps a lot.

When writing short stories your writing style might change because, big duh, it's shorter. You have to cram things into 10,000 words or less (sometimes a bit more). But just because it's shorter, doesn't mean it needs to lose the unique quality that makes you an author, in fact, sometimes, you get to make your style more intriguing, because you want to get the story in, but sometimes it doesn't take enough time, so you have little fillers, that you shouldn't use to much of.