October 3, 2022
Does your writing style change depending upon what you are writing?
Daryl Devore, another writer in this group, mentioned in a post a few weeks ago how her writing style changes based on what she is writing, and it got me thinking. Does mine?
Easy answer, yes. The Free Wolves books are written in third person, but the Harmony Duprie stories are in first person. (We’ll get to Jake’s story later.) I know not everyone enjoys reading first person, but it was what the books needed to be. I tried writing what turned into The Marquesa’s Necklace in third person, but it didn’t work.
Other differences? The Free Wolves books mostly center on one or two characters. Harmony, however, in telling us her story, gives credit to the friends that support her and give her strength. The real hero of the series is the ‘village’ that she is a part of.
How about the Jake books? (The Fall of Jake Hennessey and my WIP, The Resurrection of Jake Hennessey) They are also third person, but I tried to dive deeper into Jake’s thought process and motivations. He’s a bad guy in sheep’s clothing with a hero complex-an interesting mix of characteristics. Unlike the Free Wolves, which were story-driven books, the Jake tales are more personality-driven, which meant I had to move the action along without dialogue.
Speaking of dialogue—my style of writing dialogue can switch between characters, depending upon their personality and the situations they are in. Harmony is a great example of this. She’s a laid-back person, but when the need arises, her style of speech changes. It becomes stiffer, more formal. I don’t plan it ahead of time: it comes naturally. Here’s an example I wrote yesterday. (Unedited, so please forgive any mistakes.)
“Is that how you want to play this game? My lawyers will request that any files the agency has backing up the request become part of the record. Which means I will have access to them. If I feed my media contacts a story about a secretive government group harassing a grieving widow, how will that look? And I can’t imagine any judge in the area siding with that agency over a local girl coming home to heal after a tragedy in her life. Think carefully. You may believe you have me cornered in a game of checkers, but I’m playing chess. Checkmate, Agent.”
So yes, my writing changes with the story. I don’t think about it; it comes from knowing my characters. How about other authors? I think I know what Daryl is going to say, but I’m not sure about some of the others. Follow the links below, and we can find out!
As always, until next time, please stay safe.
October 3, 2022
Does your writing style change depending upon what you are writing?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
Apart from writing either in the first or third person, my style doesn’t change much. I assume people buy my books because they like the style that I write in, and so I try to keep it the same.
If I go back and look at my earlier writing, I can see how my style has changed- for the better, I hope!
I’m the same, I have several different personae, depending on the genre. Each with their own style. It plays havoc with marketing.
When you find the key to marketing, please share. 🙂
LOL – I bet you guessed what I was going to say. Glad to have inspired a theme. A bad guy in sheep’s clothing with a hero complex- sounds like a super fun character to write.
Tweeted.