![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sep. 17th, 2010
Writing Steve/Tony Part X: Writing in Style
Sep. 17th, 2010 04:40 pmBecause writing style is so individual, this part is going to be very short not as short as I expected, and mostly contain tips for noting problems. Even Google doesn't seem to have much consensus about writing style, so I'm winging it. (flap flap)
Style is one of those things that you can't really learn, and no one else will ever do exactly the way you do. There's two forms of writing style that are going to affect you most: the whole story and the words themselves. The story style is, essentially, what you like to write. Do you like slow, introspective stories that are more about internal movement than action? Do you likeboy meets boy Steve meets Tony romance? Humor? Supernatural? Straightforward or mind-screws? This sort of thing only emerges over several stories, and it's extremely fluid, when it exists at all. Some people don't have a strong preference for story type. Others become really attached to some plots or tropes, and bend them a thousand different ways. For example, we all know what Mark Millar likes to write (hint: it goes Boom).
Over long fics, style can be a serious concern. During the course of a few months or a year, style can change and grow dramatically. Concentrating on keeping it steady in a single piece takes effort, but it can also make the story flow more smoothly for the reader. In a shorter fic, playing with different styles can be a fun exercise, and yield some very interesting results. Especially important in longer fics is to keep an extra close eye on your style if it's one you're not familiar with yet.
Word choice is tougher. A lot of people tend to develop one style and stick with it, but it can vary from fic to fic too, sometimes deliberately and sometimes not. Sentence structure and scene formatting draw it together into a coherent whole.
( Sentence and a Paragraph )
( Speak to Me )
( Show it off )
( Fun and Games )
That does it for my paltry attempt at explaining style. D: Plz not to be hating me? Next up, scene elements!
Style is one of those things that you can't really learn, and no one else will ever do exactly the way you do. There's two forms of writing style that are going to affect you most: the whole story and the words themselves. The story style is, essentially, what you like to write. Do you like slow, introspective stories that are more about internal movement than action? Do you like
Over long fics, style can be a serious concern. During the course of a few months or a year, style can change and grow dramatically. Concentrating on keeping it steady in a single piece takes effort, but it can also make the story flow more smoothly for the reader. In a shorter fic, playing with different styles can be a fun exercise, and yield some very interesting results. Especially important in longer fics is to keep an extra close eye on your style if it's one you're not familiar with yet.
Word choice is tougher. A lot of people tend to develop one style and stick with it, but it can vary from fic to fic too, sometimes deliberately and sometimes not. Sentence structure and scene formatting draw it together into a coherent whole.
( Sentence and a Paragraph )
( Speak to Me )
( Show it off )
( Fun and Games )
That does it for my paltry attempt at explaining style. D: Plz not to be hating me? Next up, scene elements!