Every successful writer has developed his or her own style. C.C. Colton (1780-1832) wrote in The Lacon, “Imitation is the sincerest flattery.” Trying to imitate another writer’s style may be the sincerest form of flattery that you can show that writer, it won’t be your own style and it will show in your writing. Trying to imitate the style of a successful author will not make you successful. Rule number one for becoming a success as a writer is that you must develop a style that is all your own. Ok, great, you’re thinking but exactly how do I do that? Well, I hope to help you answer that question in this article.
We begin to develop our style by reading voraciously. I once asked a young woman who was struggling to get her short stories published, how many books of short stories she read over the past year and she replied that she hadn’t read any anthologies. I asked her how many novels she had read and she replied two or three. She went on to tell me that she was too busy writing her own stories to read anyone else’s. Too many aspiring writers fall into the trap. Every reader doesn’t have to be a writer, but every writer has to be a voracious reader. It’s how we find out what works and what doesn’t work. Although our style is all our own we take bits and pieces from the styles of every author we read. Some people will tell an aspiring writer too immense themselves in the works of one author but that’s the wrong approach. What you should do is read as many different authors as you can in as many different genres as you can because every successful author has something to teach you.
Besides being voracious readers, we need to be voracious writers. If it seems like I’m overdoing it with the word “voracious” my reasoning will become clear in a little while. You need to write as much as you can, in as many genres as you can without worrying about publishing what you write that will come later. Write simply because you love to write. Write genre fiction. Write nonfiction. Write poetry. Everything, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have something to teach you about writing. By doing this you will grow into your own style naturally.
When you write, write using your everyday vocabulary. Write the way you speak using the words you know well, words that come to you naturally. When I started writing to my now wife, her best friend accused me of writing my letters with a thesaurus open on my desk because I seldom ever used the same word twice in a letter and because the words that I did use were always used correctly. My point here is that if you try to use a word that you really aren’t use to using the odds are that you will use it in correctly and your readers will spot that in a heartbeat. Writers need to strive to improve their vocabulary on daily bases. Everyday pick up the dictionary and find a word that you aren’t familiar with, a word like “voracious”, and practice using it over and over again throughout the day until using it correctly becomes second nature for you. Voracious was already in my everyday vocabulary as it is in most people’s vocabularies, but it was a good word to use to illustrate my point.
Your goal as a writer is to communicate with your readers. It doesn’t matter what you write-fiction, nonfiction, or poetry-you need to speak clearly for your readers to understand. If you write fiction, your goal is to help your reader escape reality and enter a fantasy world that you create for them but if they have to struggle to understand what you have written your writing robs them of being able to live another life vicariously through your story. If you write nonfiction, the lack of clarity destroys the reader’s ability to absorb the information that you have to impart.
Two qualities of good writing are conciseness and preciseness. Be concise. Never use thirty words to explain what can be explained in ten words. Avoid run on sentences at all cost. Be precise. That’s where vocabulary comes into play. One word if it’s the right word can replace several words. This is especially important if you’re a technical writer involved in preparing an operating manual, a repair manual, or some instructional text. There are over 250, 000 words in the English language so there’s sure to be a word that expresses your thought precisely and concisely.
