Distinct Styles

[Skybase Girl]

This is a fascinating discussion and I'm coming to it rather late in the day. This is what happens when you are forced to go to Spain for fun and jollity for a few days!

Getting back to the "pop" - up here in North-East England, it is a general term for carbonated soft drinks, but is commonly used to describe alcohol too, as in 'a night on the pop'.

My brother, who isn't Scottish but has lived there most of his adult life, would also occasionally describe alcohol as 'juice'. All terms seem quite wide-ranging!

I think this should probably go in the Lexicon thread, so getting back to distinct styles.......

My aim is to learn from ( as opposed to plagiarise !) writers I like and admire, particularly those whose style "speaks" to me ; after all, there are hundreds of marvellous writers who you just KNOW you couldn't emulate in a thousand years, but there are others whose style is closer to your own and you can learn from.

The more you write, the more you learn from your mistakes. Speaking personally, I know I overwrite - why use one word when ten will do. My sentences are often too long and I like double negatives more than I should. But I am gradually learning to be more sparing and I think ( I hope) it's working.

However, I believe that no matter how influenced you are by other people, your own style, one that maybe you didn't know you had, will come through. Sometimes you don't see it, other people point it out. Eventually, you come to recognise it for yourself.

I think writing short stories is sometimes harder than a book, in that it's a difficult thing to get the balance right - what to put in, what to leave out, so that no part of the whole is unbalanced. This is particularly difficult in the areas like detail ( how much is too much? Or not enough? ) Maybe we should give ourselves more credit than we do in getting it right!

And Serena, if that book your friend was reading is anything to go by, we're not doing too badly at all !

[Mary]

My aim is to learn from ( as opposed to plagiarise !) writers I like and admire, particularly those whose style "speaks" to me ; after all, there are hundreds of marvellous writers who you just KNOW you couldn't emulate in a thousand years, but there are others whose style is closer to your own and you can learn from....

However, I believe that no matter how influenced you are by other people, your own style, one that maybe you didn't know you had, will come through. Sometimes you don't see it, other people point it out. Eventually, you come to recognise it for yourself.

Many years ago, when I first sent in my fanfic to Power Star, I received what I thought was a great compliment. Someone said that I had written "a Tom Clancy novel boiled down to short story length." Ironically I had heard of the author, and had seen some of the movies, but had never picked up a single one of his books. Imagine my surprise when I read his fiction and noticed some similarities...

[Skybase Girl]

Take heart Mary. Be encouraged ! Think of the money he's made ! I'm not suggesting you sell your soul, but if he can do it..........