#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 🥲

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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!

[arynneva]

wait do people read first person stories and think they're the ones in the story???

Saw people talking about not liking first person, which is fair, but their reasoning was like "I would not do that" and I don't understand that mindset.

First person stories are still about a character. A character making their own decisions. First person isn't about you???? At least I thought it wasn't. What am I missing? I've always seen first person as just a more in-depth look into a character's mind and stricter POV. Not as a reader stand-in.

[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.

[ancientroyalblood]

Exploring Poetic Forms: From Sonnets to Free Verse

Poetry is an art form that captivates readers through rhythm, emotion, and vivid language. One of the key elements that distinguishes poetry from prose is its structure, and understanding different poetic forms can help both budding and experienced writers create more impactful poems. Whether you are drawn to the rigid patterns of sonnets or the freedom of free verse, exploring these diverse…

[100pizzas]

This is super interesting to me! I have been reading more books lately, and usually after finishing a book I’ll seek out some reviews online to see what other people think. Common criticisms were that the author’s language is too flowery or pretentious, and that the characters/events were not believable. Both of these really surprised me, as none of my recent reads were overly literary or “avant-garde”. For me, the author’s writing style and word choice helps me to become immersed in the story, but apparently other readers had a completely different expectation about the use of language.

This is a dangerous sentiment for me to express, as an editor who spends most of my working life telling writers to knock it off with the 45-word sentences and the adverbs and tortured metaphors, but I do think we're living through a period of weird pragmatic puritanism in mainstream literary taste.

e.g. I keep seeing people talk about 'purple prose' when they actually mean 'the writer uses vivid and/or metaphorical descriptive language'. I've seen people who present themselves as educators offer some of the best genre writing in western canon as examples of 'purple prose' because it engages strategically in prose-poetry to evoke mood and I guess that's sheer decadence when you could instead say "it was dark and scary outside". But that's not what purple prose means. Purple means the construction of the prose itself gets in the way of conveying meaning. mid-00s horse RPers know what I'm talking about. Cerulean orbs flash'd fire as they turn'd 'pon rollforth land, yonder horizonways. <= if I had to read this when I was 12, you don't get to call Ray Bradbury's prose 'purple'.

I griped on here recently about the prepossession with fictional characters in fictional narratives behaving 'rationally' and 'realistically' as if the sole purpose of a made-up story is to convince you it could have happened. No wonder the epistolary form is having a tumblr renaissance. One million billion arguments and thought experiments about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas that almost all evade the point of the story: that you can't wriggle out of it. The narrator is telling you how it was, is and will be, and you must confront the dissonances it evokes and digest your discomfort. 'Realistic' begins on the author's terms, that's what gives them the power to reach into your brain and fiddle about until sparks happen. You kind of have to trust the process a little bit.

This ultra-orthodox attitude to writing shares a lot of common ground with the tight, tight commodification of art in online spaces. And I mean commodification in the truest sense - the reconstruction of the thing to maximise its capacity to interface with markets. Form and function are overwhelmingly privileged over cloudy ideas like meaning, intent and possibility, because you can apply a sliding value scale to the material aspects of a work. But you can't charge extra for 'more challenging conceptual response to the milieu' in a commission drive. So that shit becomes vestigial. It isn't valued, it isn't taught, so eventually it isn't sought out. At best it's mystified as part of a given writer/artist's 'talent', but either way it grows incumbent on the individual to care enough about that kind of skill to cultivate it.

And it's risky, because unmeasurables come with the possibility of rejection or failure. Drop in too many allegorical descriptions of the rose garden and someone will decide your prose is 'purple' and unserious. A lot of online audiences seem to be terrified of being considered pretentious in their tastes. That creates a real unwillingness to step out into discursive spaces where you 🫵 are expected to develop and explore a personal relationship with each element of a work. No guard rails, no right answers. Word of god is shit to us out here. But fear of getting that kind of analysis wrong makes people hove to work that slavishly explains itself on every page. And I'm left wondering, what's the point of art that leads every single participant to the same conclusion? See Spot run. Run, Spot, run. Down the rollforth land, yonder horizonways. I just want to read more weird stuff.

[joneswebgoods]

Make Ambigrams

Ambigrams are pretty fun, as they're a design or a word that can keep it's meaning when it's viewed from a different orientation or perspective. For example the word "swims" can look the same if turned upside down. To learn how to make Ambigrams, you can try the website https://makeambigrams.com. You can try out a pretty cool generator where you can make an ambigram from one or two words of the same character length and choose a font that fits your preferred style. https://makeambigrams.com/ambigram-generator/