III. What Are Ways That I Can Improve My Writing Style?

Your writing style is your voice. Obviously you want it to be the best possible voice. So how do you improve?

1. Find your natural voice. Find a sheet or two of paper or pull up a word processor and start writing. Make it any simple story, with any characters and any plot. When you're done, or even when you've just written a page, look over your work. Are you finding a lot of verbs (are your characters doing a lot?) or are you finding a lot of adjectives and adverbs? To you, does your writing style look simple or complex? After you decided the answer to those two questions, ask a writing buddy what answers they would give the questions about your writing.
   
2. Take the book into account. For some books, a complex and descriptive style works the best--like fantasy. For others, simple is better (I find myself using a simple style when I write science fiction). Whose perspective is the book from? Depending on the main character, especially if you're using first person, you need to develop the style after what your character would find natural.

Lastly, your writing style should be your own. I cannot stress that enough. So many young writers think their voice will only be good if they copy more experienced authors. This will get you nowhere. Your writing style has to be you, otherwise you'd be as uncomfortable as if you're trying on someone else's clothes (particularly someone who's a couple sizes different from you). Yes, there are some really brilliant styles out there, but your style can be brilliant as well.

The other thing about writing styles are that they take time, experience, and energy to develop. The best way to improve your authorial voice? Write. And write. And write.

That's about all I feel worthy enough to say about this complicated and diverse issue, but I do have one more post it this series. Last up: 'Suggested Reading'.