Guest Entry by H. Ravenholm

It’s a definite – there are probably as many styles of writing as there are people (read that potential authors, read that potential authors we want to publish  ).
But… and that’s an everlasting but for all authors… what if, that terrible, niggling if, what if what you are doing is not, well, it?
There are two main ways of going about writing and this is what we’re going to be going on about in this article.
There is the taught way, meaning that you go and take courses, sometimes even at a university level, to learn how to write, and then there is the natural way, which means that you just write and see what happens along the way.
But which one is “the” style of writing?

Whether you are a poet, a prose writer or a bit of both, or even if you would like to master either (or both) to become a lyrics writer (aka song writer) or even a script writer, you will find that there is a lot of “how to” and “must” in regards to writing… and that regardless of you taking a course or going about it the all-natural way.
Let’s face it – what you write and how you do it is, at the end of it, something very personal. And even if the tenth publisher has said no this week, there are plenty more fish in the sea, provided you know how to avoid nasty people who will try to put you off and change your story, and in the end, if you grow tired of chasing them, there is still self-publishing. To write is to create a bond between yourselves and the readers, and there is (or so we believe, with a good reason) no work out there, poetry or prose, that would get absolutely no interest from people. In other words, the challenge is to find a publisher that will be that medium you need to get yourself to the readers (we like to think we’re it, but that’s because we absolutely enjoy our business  ) or you need to figure out your own way around this issue. But one thing is guaranteed – whatever you have written, there are readers out there for you, and chances are that you are going to be quite successful, even if you just go about it yourself.
So you shouldn’t give up… no matter how many people happily tell you that they don’t like your story or your way of writing.
We know what you’re wondering right now – all fine and well, but is there a greater chance of getting published or writing better (not always the same thing!) if you go and take a course?
The answer is simple… and it’s a flat-out no.

Why?

While plenty of Universities offer courses and degrees in writing, majority of them have, shall we say, a specific agenda in mind. There are a lot of theorists out there that claim to understand writing; the idea is that there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way and this approach not only discourages aspiring authors, but it also tends to mock all but the specific style of writing that a specific theorist has managed to get into the curriculum.
Sooo… if we’re on a high horse about say, Shakespeare, we are going to diss everyone who writes in a different style. If we develop the same issues as those who go for Wordsworth have, we will diss all those who write, prose or poetry, like anyone else. And it’s not just that – you have to understand that plenty of people in the past (many of them authors or poets themselves) have had issues about writing styles, and if there’s one thing human beings are good at is creating a cult out of the potentially therapy-worthy issues of some long dead chap.
This dogmatic approach is simply the worst possible thing for anyone who writes with their heart and soul. It is the certain way to get told repeatedly that you are no good, that your ideas suck and that you should probably get a different career idea, because you will never ever manage to be a successful author at all.
If by now you are angry with this approach, good for you, because you should be. No one has the right to tell anyone else that they suck just because whatever they have created does not appeal to that particular reader in mind. Not everyone likes, say, peaches, and that doesn’t mean that we should suddenly start scoffing at people who do.
If you are in a course and have taken it upon yourself to develop writing via Uni or similar, then remember that what you learn may or may not be useful (after all, there is a LOT of information that we learn that may or may not be useful, particularly so because science, for example, constantly changes) and that you should not, by no means, become a clone.
Which is another of the problems of doing writing this way. The terrifying wish to create perfect clones.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Say, you’re in a class that hates the flowery style and your teacher is constantly pressing and pressing for you to abandon that dreadful, abominable way of thinking and writing, but it’s precisely the style that got you interested in the first place? If you want our advice, tell them to stuff it (and be assured that we’re happy for you to tell them that we said so). Lots and lots of people still read that style with love and devotion (you did, didn’t you? Meaning it’s STILL AROUND!  ). But if you let others put you down, you may become dispirited, you may lose that connection with the self that writes and you may, in the end, decide that you are probably too bad a writer/poet to ever even try it for real.
Don’t do that. (For one, we’ll be disappointed. 😉 ). It’s very easy to sit in your highly elevated chair as a teacher and bask in your own self-importance while telling others they are crap. Most of these people are not writers themselves, like the critics, they are theorists (or have somehow failed in this themselves, most likely because they approached it from psychologically non-relatable, dry, all-theory no love for the art side of the matter that they now promote). And what theorists fail to understand, big time, is that we read, listen to music and watch films (and write!) because the particular art or work inspires a feeling of familiarity, or empathy, within us.
We relate, consciously or subconsciously, to the characters or the stories. We draw parallels to them and we often feel better because of it.
Turning the matter into a strict dogma, however, is stripping the person of their self, and that is a sure-fire way to depression.

If you are in a course and you wish to continue, then do so by all means. But do keep in mind that there can be a divide between how the teacher likes it and how you like it, and that you might as well keep the way you like it for later, even if you’re now going to roll your eyes and charm up some clever concoctions that will make you seem like the type of a person they like.
Of course, not all teachers and professors are like that… you may just be the luckiest person on the planet, and you have a true connoisseur of art working with you. If that’s the case, you are technically talking to an avid reader. Use their advice, as much as it feels comfortable to you (mind, a little advice for all your life… always go about things that way  ). Otherwise, just remain the you that writes and love what you do. That is the best way of getting yourself readers (and a real publisher), because nothing elates a reader more than being able to immerse fully into the story or a poem (which, you have to admit, is a story, just a very little one  ), and that can be best achieved if the author did and felt the same.
That’s what makes a good story-teller in person… and you have to remember that that is really what you are on paper (or a computer page, this being the 21^st century).

Soooo… what about the natural writer?

Well, the natural writer is probably something that resides, at least in small quantities, in all of us. We tend to exchange stories as a species, and it’s very likely that that’s what inspires us to put them down the way we do. (Wonder if we’re the only ones…  We’d love to publish some stuff that, say, whales could tell about their journeys…)
The only thing that can be said about the natural writer is this – they may be clumsy until they get comfortable. But like with a lot of other things (think of your first attempt at cooking, for instance… if you’re like us, it was probably dreadful , and then the next time, there were no eggshells in it, and it didn’t have odd crunchy bits and so on… and by now, you’re a master cook), getting comfortable may take a few tries.
Again, if you’re reading your stuff to others (or letting them look at it), bear in mind that tastes differ, and that some people are mean, period (the reason why being their own discomfort with many things, including writing).
But constructive criticism should be always more than welcome. Did the reader(s) understand where the story was going? Did they follow the twists and turns? Did you accidentally forget one of the characters in a native village while all the others managed to get on the boat? (Um… guilty, says one of our team… but that was because I see my stories like movies, and he was WITH THEM ALL THE TIME… I just forgot to write that down…)
It’s that kind of thing that can spoil the story or a poem somewhat.

Grammar is another. Lover’s or lovers’ creates a difference between a couple and an orgy, for instance. An unwanted, if really funny, confusion that you may want to avoid. (Unless you are writing about an orgy, which is totally ok with us.  )
But it’s easy to polish your grammar a bit… no matter if you were born a native speaker and just didn’t have an education, or if the language you wish to write in is not your first language. There’s plenty of ways to make it better… reading, for one, is a good one. Classics are a brilliant way to improve your language… but beware, not all the things you learn from, say, Scott are still applicable, because language changes, as does spelling and punctuation.

So where are we going with all this?

To the end of this article, and, with that, hopefully to the simple message… just be yourself. If you are as enthusiastic about writing as we are about reading and publishing, we see no reason why you wouldn’t succeed… and the enthusiasm should be coming from that deep down, mysterious source that wakes you in the middle of the night and tells you : “You need to write another story.”

And there is no way to learn this… it comes from your heart.

Next time : Styles of writing and which person