Lessons Learns From Time Spent Writing

Style (Not Being Original)

If you’ve read much of my stuff, first off, bless you. Secondly, you then know I often write about the act of writing itself. It’s a craft that has become near and dear to me. It fascinates me. I wish I was more gifted at it so I could communicate more clearly how it truly paints life in so much color. It demands intentionality that lasts, and invites me to think about human nature in great detail so that I can convey it convincingly on the page. I do believe that is what I love about it most.

Quite possibly my second favorite thing about it is that there are distinct styles. The style guide is a tool used or developed by many writers, a set of commandments set forth that dictate the sorts of things an individual does or does not write, and how they write about those things. Famously, Ernest Hemingway learned to write while working at The Kansas City Star, reporting on police and ER happenings in the city. He used their style guide as his teacher and it clearly shows in his writing style, which is arguably the most famous and recognizable of writing styles we have to read.

It’s a joyful experience to begin to recognize different authors by their style, and even more joyful to start recognizing the budding of your own style. An interesting tidbit about developing my own writing style I began to notice is that it is easy to start mirroring elements of the style of whoever I’m reading at the time. Currently I’m reading two books, one by Kurt Vonnegut and the other by Fyodor Dosteovsky. Both of these authors have slightly heady styles. And by slightly I mean extremely. They dive to the depths of the ocean that is the complex and tortured minds of their characters, and themselves. And so I find myself writing in a slightly more would-be philosophical style. It’s part of having mirror neurons, the parts of each of us that absorb and then reflect back to a person the things they are already doing. It’s why if you’re around a person that says a certain phrase all the time, you will find yourself repeating that phrase. What I’m saying is that I often read a book I like and begin to emulate the author’s style, without realizing it at first, and then purposely and purposefully, because it achieves something I want to achieve. Usually to sound pretty and convey ideas creatively. 

I used to worry about this tendency in myself, to reuse various parts of various author’s styles. I thought it meant I was devoid of imagination and incapable of having an original thought. But as I’ve sat with it, and as I’ve come to accept that having a truly original thought is next to impossible, I think it’s actually cool to take bits and pieces of various styles I enjoy and respect, and to mash them into a new style I call mine.

Simplicity of speech is a key element I have taken from more than one author that I’m a fan of. Hemingway most notably. I find it tempting to go on and on with my words, creating what elementary English teachers used to call ‘run on sentences.’ Being hard to follow is not the mark of a good writer. So instead of trying to be clear in a new and clever way, I observed writers with short, clear styles and, well, copied. Simplicity and clarity is an element I am consciously integrating into the way I write. Into my style.

The most striking part of any book to me isn’t the penultimate event, the love story that works out or the overarching message. The most striking part is when an author is able to describe an aspect of the human condition, an emotion, that resonates so deeply with me that it feels like I discovered the capacity to feel a new emotion that is as core to being a human as feeling happiness, or grief. From authors who have taught me how to feel, taught me a little bit more about what it means to have emotions and how to relate to what goes on inside of my own head, I have carefully picked and emulated parts of style. Inner dialogue is sacred in real life. Conversations within your head about how you really feel and what you must do are paramount to living a life of action and purpose, one where you are in control of your own thoughts and the things those thoughts drive you to do. And I have seen masters depict what those internal conversations look like, and yes, copied them. Displaying thought processes as dialogue is an element of writing style I have stolen.

I can go on all night about what I have seen authors do, how I loved it, and rolled their techniques into my own practice. But it’s late and I want to go to sleep, so you will have to live with these examples for now. I will close with this thought: style isn’t a rigid thing. Think about the coolest people you know, Tom Cruise comes to mind. I hate that he does but he does. He isn’t up tight. He has style, he’s dynamic. Style can adapt and change. It forms to whatever the situation calls for. It’s everywhere, so see what seems to work and keep making it work. Style is not started from scratch. It’s simply the way the words get out.

Photo by Bailey Zindel on Unsplash