#Writing Styles

[adinelleggreeo]

I realise now why I don't like reading first person POV fanfics.

Nobody ever writes them correctly. Instead of writing with the personality of the character, the character ends up sounding so detached from the events. It's like they're the faceless narrator recording the events and then jump in to interact when it's their turn to talk.

Just saw someone try to write Danny in the first person POV. The writing was fine, but the POV wasn't POVing.

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is an excellent example of a successful first person POV.

I remember reading the book for the first time at 13. I've never read a book with a first person POV until then and for a while I wrote a lot of my stories with that POV.

I suck at writing first person POV these days. Unfortunately knowing why I suck doesn't help me suck any less 🥲

[onlycosmere]

Writing Styles

Would Nabokov’s writing be considered “purple prose” in today’s writing climate? by meadowillow_ 

meadowillow_ : Vladimir Nabokov is praised as one of the most gifted writers of the ornate style. Interestingly, somebody wrote an article—its title eludes me—about sending a sample of Nabokov’s writing for review. This sample was sent under a pseudonym. The advice was to make the writing simple and economical.

That made me wonder. How much of our judgements about ornate writing are post-hoc rationalisations? Do we fish for reasons to judge the writing as good because we know the author is a masterful stylist? Would we judge their writing the same if it were written by a nameless, faceless stranger on the internet?

I’m denying neither that Nabokov is an excellent writer nor that his work is immune from criticism. I just wonder how much established authors fairly evade and unknown authors bear the brunt of a certain type of criticism.

With all of this in mind:

Do you think that Nabokov’s writing would be well-received if he were an unknown author in 2024?

[I’d like to keep the focus on his writing style not on the controversial nature of some of his books.]

Great_Ad_5561:  I used an alt account to post an excerpt from an award-winning novel in r/writers, and it was torn apart. I think people these days don't appreciate anything that isn't straightforward. Of course, there are those who still enjoy it, but for the most part, lives are busier now than they were then, and to some, it is easier to read straightforward books.

Bridalhat:  Also, judging by the types of work most commonly posted here, r/writers and r/writing is not full of literary scholars, writers, or readers. Which is fine! But there’s probably more people here who like Sanderson’s prose than who have read Nabokov period, maybe excluding Lolita. 

SizeableDuck: I'm not a fan of this trend at all, though everyone's obviously entitled to their opinion.

I read Lolita recently and absolutely loved it mainly because of how witty and poetic the prose was - completely unlike anything published nowadays, not to mention its subject matter. It's clear from the first page that Nabakov was a genius.

Tried Way of Kings for the first time shortly afterwards and found it to be the driest, most watered-down thing I've ever read by comparison. The only thing about it that challenged me was reaching the final page.

I get that Sanderson has a different style and his writing is -meant- to be completely lacking in spice, style and charm in order to make his stories more palatable for the average fantasy fan nowadays, but look me in the eye and tell me you've ever laughed at the constant, god-awful wordplay in those books.

He just describes exactly what's happening in the plot and the character's heads. There's no poetry and it makes me a little bit sad to see so many people praising him as an amazing fantasy writer purely because of his plots.

You can find a ton of writers nowadays that're like Sanderson, but you can't find any closer to Nabakov.

Brandon Sanderson:  While I agree that taste is completely subjective--and it's never offensive for someone to simply not like a book--I think you're spreading some misinformation here.

Those of us trying for clean, striking prose aren't doing it to make "stories more palatable for the average fantasy fan nowadays." We do it because we like this style, and would rather the ideas--and not the method by which they are expressed--be the challenging part of a story. I find it insulting that you'd imply prose choice is anything but a literary decision made for the merits of the narrative.

This division isn't new. George Orwell was advocating for clean, crisp prose in the 40s, a full decade before Lolita was written. This push and pull between clarity and ornament stretches back to Shakespeare, whose contemporaries would lambast his flourishes as incomprehensible. (Not that I mind, obviously, literary genius being in the ornaments. It's only that I find multiple kinds of writing worthwhile.)

Moreover, you can absolutely find writers closer to Nabakov today. Guy Gavriel Kay is still writing, and is one of my favorites. (Try Under Heaven.) Hal Duncan is still writing, and is amazing, though rarely releases anything. And, of course, there's N. K. Jemisin--not the same, but most certainly "closer to Nabakov." Even the majority of the writers in the New Weird experimented with style in the same ways as I think you'd like.

Many varieties of writing are valuable to the craft, and I suggest new writers (many of whom frequent this subreddit) practice multiple styles to find the ones that appeal to them and match their narrative goals. It's totally fine to prefer one over another, but I find abundant "spice, style, and charm" in something crisp like Harrison Bergeron--indeed, I find just as much of it as I do in something like Lolita, if for different reasons.

SizeableDuck:  Much more level-headed and correct than what I was typing last night. Thanks for the recommendations, too.

Edit: Just realised you are the man himself. I take everything back.

Edit 2: By this I mean I take back my previous rudeness twofold. I had a think about it this morning when I read his reply and realised that the creatives I love to shit on have, in most cases, accomplished more than I could hope to. And in addition, probably know more about the topics I'm criticising than I do.

[pandorasopenedbox3]

I once had a girl tell me I write with a fanfiction style and idk if that was supposed to be a compliment or not? What is fanfiction style??? I thought we just each had our own??? Like thank you??? Maybe??? Anyway I think I’ll think about that forever.

[deathsmallcaps]

Weird question: how do you write your letter X’s?

I encountered the first method drawn a couple days ago and I’ve never seen it before, so I’m curious. Please feel free to explain where you’re from/why you write it this way in the tags! I’m wondering if it’s a regional thing.

Black is first stroke, red is the second.if you do one of these, but ‘backwards’, doing what I call , please still choose the ‘frontwards’

1. Is what I call the parentheses method, which I’ve never seen before last week. Basically, you draw one parenthesis, open left, then another parenthesis open right, and their backs touch.

2. The cursive method, which I basically never do, where you do a squiggly first line, going from top left to bottom right, and then another diagonal going the other way

3. The print method, which I usually do, where you draw two diagonal lines perpendicular to each other. Should look like a plus sign on its side.

I’m hiding the poll under the cut so there’s less accidental voting before reading this whole thing.

@amaros-system I feel like this would interest you

[katriniac]

Pantser VS. Plotter

Gardener VS. Architect

These are different ways to describe your own writing style. I had heard about the pantser/plotter a while ago.

I write fanfics as well as do RPs with writing partners.

When I'm RPing I find that I'm mostly a pantser because that's what works naturally with my partners. But we do take time to workshop a path, but not nearly enough to call us plotters. However there is always a blend of the two.

When I'm writing my stories, though, I stop thinking in terms of the first two. Instead I prefer the gardener/architect concepts.

If you're not familiar with them, AO3's Tumblr account described them really well here:

Snippet from that post:

When I have a story idea, I find that I'm firmly in one camp or another. I don't cross over or mix them AT ALL.

And you know what? Once it's all done and I re-read after editing, I honestly can't say one way is better than the other. Both methods produce good stories. Both work for my weird writing habits.

What makes all the difference are these two things: How the fanfic idea was first inspired; Who I am writing this for (me VS a specific audience).

Are you a Pantser? Plotter? Gardener? Architect?

Do you have other terms or concepts you divide your writing styles into? I'd love to hear about them!

[kingsonne-zedecks]

I think its so interesting how differently people approach worldbuilding and prompts. Sometimes you get incredibly specific and rational prompts like

"Think about a city in your world. Name two different merchant factions, what they deal in, who their founders are, and how they rival each other. "

And sometimes you get prompts that are nothing more than.

"There is an alley. People don't like it. Why?"

And different writers thrive under each style dramatically differently.

Like, I can't do the first one at all, my brain just doesn't work like that. But give me a name for a superhero and I can come up with their powers and life story. Give me a vaguely bad alley and I can write about the unsettling magical phenomena that plague people who pass to closely by.

[ahb-writes]

Misleading modifiers...

(from Disenchantment S1E18: "In Her Own Write")

[anulithots]

How I write: Overdramatic prose where water fell to the clouds, pooled between the fluffs, trickled to the stars beyond, washed out their glow, casting the sky in a dull light. Those stars where everywhere, and nowhere at all.

What I'm writing about: So character has been on "tumblr" for too long and is getting under-stimulated and is spiraling because there's not any dopamine in that brain.

[apathmakerstale]

I’m curious since I use a nonstandard way to name my fic chapters and I see a fair amount of other styles.

Personally I do something like this for multi-chapter works.

"K.S/ The Old Roads Below III"

The initials 'K' and 'S' to signify POV order and a switch, in this case Kars is first and then it switches to Sherry. 'K' by itself signifies its only Kars's POV.

Then ‘ / ' to show that they are the ones involved with that arc.

Then 'The Old Roads Below' which is the arc name, and a Roman numeral, in this case the 3rd chapter of it.

[mushroom-through-the-stargate]

I have a writing style I like to call third person limited (plural) in which the narrator is hardly omnipotent, but the pov tends to jump around the group/pairing instead of sticking to one singular mc

[rateatingraccoon]

Writing process

Alright, it's ramble time, though I would be curious to hear feedback from other writers.

I had a bit of a realization recently.

For context, I'm a fanfic writer and I have an irl friend that also writes when the mood strikes them. Occasionally they'll enlist me to sort of be their editor and give them feedback, fix grammar, etc. in exchange for feedback on my work.

The thing is, we write very differently.

I tend to write my first draft like it's my final one (and it usually is). When words come out of my mind, they're usually already thought through and prepared. If you've read my work on ao3, you probably know that I don't beta read. My fanfics are edited very minimally. And yet, there's usually only a few errors, if any at all, even on the longer fics.

This applies to school, too. I don't use graphic organizers or drafts, really. I write, I go back and fix minor mistakes, I turn it in. It usually gets me a fine grade. When teachers would give use extra time to go back and revise, I would very rarely find anything I felt the need to fix.

Now, my friend, despite also being a writer, writes very differently. Their first drafts are often littered with mistakes, from punctuation to spelling. They are by no means a bad writer, but they often have to spend nearly as much time fixing things as they spent writing them.

The gist is that they write by word vomit, then go back and clean up the vomit. My words come out clean. It may take me an hour to write 1k words and them half an hour, but I can immediately publish those words without much error while they would have to go back and fix much of what they wrote.

I have a theory it may be thanks to my ADHD. When I finish things, I can't wait to post them, which leads to me usually not wanting to go back and edit - but if the writing is bad, I feel self-conscious. I theorize this might mean I just... evolved to write everything well on the first try. I've seen other people talk about writing like this, but also see many people, especially non-writers, feel more comfortable using drafts or even organizers.

So, I am curious. If you bothered to read this far, how do you write? Do your words come out, as my friend put it, “already elegant”, or do you have to edit often?

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

H & M

thank you for another ask anon, or many anons, whoever you are!

H: How would you describe your style?

Writing-wise, it's all over the place. It's easier to say what it isn't: it's not flowery, it's not 'sensual' in the sense that it brings physical sensations to the mind, it's not especially or intentionally poetic, and it's not rhythmic or flowy.

Maybe if I look at the opposites, I'll get my style: it's concrete, direct, and blunt. It can be fast-paced and focused. It is sometimes poetic, but not often. I've got a decent bit of narration and dialogue, but when I do narrate, it's direct and to the point.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

I've got a laundry list of AU ideas that will turn into medium-length fics. I'm working on an amnesia one at the moment, and I plan on writing another one from Tonks's POV. A marriage law AU is floating in the back of my mind, only because I think it's hilarious to put Remus in that situation. Another AU of Tonks growing up with the Marauders (not time travel - I'd have Andromeda be Walburga's sister and Tonks and Sirius would be first cousins), tbd on that.

Oh, and I've got this idea of Dave the unwanted Gryffindor, the unspoken, fifth roommate of the Marauders who is SO DONE with their shit.

alphabet ask game

[fan-dweeb]

I am making my rapid rounds through different fandom’s fanfics to have a semblance of purpose in life, and isn’t it interesting that there’s a subtle difference in the general writing style of particular fandoms?

Like:

PJO fandom has a certain air of a teen recounting some story/ trying to sound professional

spiderman (mcu) feels like watching a movie as in focusing a lot on dialogue and the movements between

haikyuu is surprisingly literature (?? sorta like, long prose about small moments???)

hp has a lot of introspection

Idk these r just the ones I’ve been binging recently, lmk if u find anymore interesting ones

(PS *sighs in broken self-induced fanfic abstinence*)

[weshallflyaway]

What's your favorite piece you've written to date, and is there a link to read it?

What would you describe your writing style as?

If someone happened upon your writing, and knew nothing about you or the piece, what things do you think they would infer/imagine about you as a person?

Happy Writing Saturday

I'm sorry this has taken me so long to reply to, I recently returned from a long visit to my family and have been getting over jetlag and catching up on work!

My favourite piece that I've written to date is my novel, Border Crossings. I love writing fanfic, but there was always a desire to see if I could develop my own characters and write my own original work. I'm incredibly proud of it, and Lise and Michael still hold very special places in my heart. You can find it on amazon here and there is a kindle version.

For my favourite fanfic I've written it's difficult to choose just one, but I think it might be Higher Than Words.

If I had to describe my writing style I would say it's both to the point, and introspective. I don't tend to use a lot of descriptive paragraphs when it comes to the surroundings, clothes, weather etc and that can be something that readers either like or don't. For the introspective part, I enjoy focusing on feelings, change and growth when it comes to my characters. While they might go on physical journeys in some of my works, it's usually the personal journey of growth that is more important.

That last question is an interesting one and it's one that I would love to know from someone who has read my writing, just how do I come across as a person when you read my stories? Would people assume I'm older or younger than I am? I think I could possibly come across as a quiet person, but I'm not certain of more than that and I would love to hear what people do assume about me one day!

Thank you for these asks, it was fun to respond!

[nicholegokie]

[evidently-endless]

i think we should remind musicians they can absolutely make up little stories for their songs btw. it doesn’t have to be about them at all. you can invent a guy and put him in situations to music. time honoured tradition in fact.