I’ve been writing – well – everybody ‘writes’, but I’ve been writing writing for a little over a year now. And one thing I remember being worried about when sitting down in front of the keyboard as a ‘writer’ for the first time, was style. As in, “How do I develop my own style?”

I think it’s hard for new writers to imagine they could actually have their own unique style because there’s already a daunting number of both professional and non-professional writers out there staking their claim in stylistic real-estate, so-to-speak. It ’s hard to believe there can be room for a new writer; hard to believe they might actually have something new and valuable to bring to such a saturated and sometimes elitist craft. 

WHAT IS STYLE, EXACTLY?:

Style is such a broad term that covers so much, but I’ll try my best.

ref: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/writing+style

Definition - “Writing Style”:
A style of expressing yourself in writing.

Vague. Don’t you hate it when dictionaries do that? Let’s try…

Definition - “Expressive Style”:
A way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period; “all the reporters were expected to adopt the style of the newspaper”.

A little better. Although definitions for ‘style’ are vague, this one touches on something important—particular stories you write are going to have different narrative styles from other stories you write, but they will both also be derived from your own unique writing style.

‘Style’ is the same thing as ‘voice’. But, for further confusion’s sake, it’s not the same thing as a character’s voice. 

Bah! Here’s my definition: ’Style’ is how you can easily tell the difference between snippets by Neil Gaiman and Chuck Palahniuk. It’s also how you can tell the difference between Good Omens and Stardust.

Style is the words you choose, the frequency of periods and commas, or whether or not you choose to start sentences with ‘But’ or ‘And’.

Some authors use run-on sentences to portray a sense of urgency. Other authors like to include supernatural influences in their works. Dean Koontz likes to do both.

Use of repetition, rhythm, etc.

These are just a few examples of stylistic choices.

WRITING IMITATES ART (AND VICE-VERSA):

Most artists start out trying to imitate the art styles they love. Their own style blooms later. Writing seems to follow that same path.

I started out imitating the writers I enjoy. (I’m assuming other beginning writers do this, too.) And I wrote many different scenarios with my own characters and settings, using a mixture of borrowed styles and my own emotions.

Thanks to the support of friends in the writing community, I learned a lot from them. I added everything I was learning from their  constructive criticisms to the mix. My writing kept transforming until it was something I was comfortable with; it became the product of different styles, my personality, tastes, my past, and tricks I’ve learned from other writers. My writing met my comfort zone. 

Artists may not realize it, but they start off with a specific style. So do writers. We all have styles from the start, even if they are unrefined. As established artists go through different periods, their style changes; it continually develops. It follows that our writing styles will also continually change and develop for the rest of our lives.