Whilst I was at work today and trying desperately not to be engulfed by usual boredom I started wondering how best to approach developing the style of your writing. As someone who is fairly new to all this the questions that got my (rather meagre) grey matter ticking over were:

Is it a good idea to persevere developing one style of writing, or is it a good idea to try different styles, to see how they fit?

Is the ultimate aim to find one voice and stick with that, or is it better to develop a range?

I appreciate there will never be a definitive answer to such questions, but I would be interested in anyone’s thoughts on the subject.

Sam

I think the way major authors deal with this is to invent a new name under which to write in a new style. This covers both aims: to have a unique and identifiable style, and to be able to experiment with a range of styles.

As far as we are concerned, I suggest we try as many styles as we have time for, in case one of them clicks.

I've tried adventure, a play, short funny pieces and even memories of the more pleasant side of my life. So far, I've had the most fun with weird short stories.

Hope this is the type of response you wanted,
Regards, JohnK.

I agree with John, the key to finding your stylistic niche is just to write as much as possible. It is possible though that the style that you enjoy writing most is not the style that you are best at writing. That's another reason that the feedback that you get from people (writeworders!) is very important.

Hope this helps,

Pete

Very broadly speaking, I'd say that there are writers who have their own 'voice' and those who don't. Both can be successful but probably blockbusters tend to be written more by writers who don't have a 'voice'. For example, I'd say that J K Rowling and John Grisham don't have a distinctive writing voice. And possibly that's why they appeal to so many people. Both these writers produce stories that read like mass appeal Hollywood movies in which, let's face it, a distinctive 'voice' or style can only serve to put off some or many people. Perhaps this is because blockbusters tend to be action-based and therefore a reader doesn't want a writer's style to get in the way of the bangs and crashes. Writers with a distinctive voice tend to appeal to smaller audiences, although that doesn't say mean they can't make a good living. One example that springs to mind is Kurt Vonnegut whose voice dominates most of his books, sometimes literally in that he will even put himself into some scenes. Personally, I find his stuff very funny, clever and imaginative. But then, no one's yet managed to make a successful film of one of his books. I guess any writer is driven to write a certain kind of book - if it's blockbusters then they probably will find automatically that their writing will need to be fairly neutral in style. If it's more towards what's sometimes called 'cult' writing, then they will definitely need an individual voice. Having said all this, there are also no easy rules to follow towards getting one's own voice. Look at Terry Pratchett, for example, who is very funny and has a natural sounding 'voice', compared with his many imitators who are usually painfully unfunny and whose voices sound strained and false.

Hi John, Pete & Terry. Thanks very much for your feedback on this one.

I think at the moment I’m enjoying writing, but am feeling a bit directionless. I feel that I should be aiming towards something, but have no idea exactly what that should be. Hence this question. I suppose what I should be asking myself is what I want to get from writing. At the moment I just think I’ve found something I enjoy doing. Maybe, at the moment, there is no need for an ultimate goal. Probably trying things out and seeing if anything sticks is the best way forward.

Terry, interested in your thoughts on the distinctiveness of a voice. I very much agree with what you are saying. From my own perspective, nearly all the books that have had a real impact on me. The books that years after reading them I can still picture the scenes and feel the characters tend to be the ones with a distinctive narration. It’s just a bit of a pain that achieving this effect is probably much more of a challenge that the more neutral voice.

I’m sure WW will help me to judge what works and what doesn’t! Time to get writing – or perhaps I’ll just have a quick browse on WW first…..

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Sam