Cultivate Your Writing Style
By: Heather Jacobs
Writing encompasses four primary styles. Each style serves a specific purpose and audience, influencing how a writer should craft their text while maintaining their unique voice:
Expository Writing: This style is used to explain or inform readers about a topic. It’s commonly seen in technical writing, business writing, high school essays, and news articles.
Descriptive Writing: This style employs figurative language and sensory details to describe a person, place, or thing, enabling readers to visualize it. Poetry often uses descriptive writing.
Narrative Writing: This style tells a story and includes elements like the main character, setting, and plot, typically found in novels or short stories. Examples include “The Catcher in the Rye”, “The Color Purple”, and “The Lord of the Rings”.
Persuasive Writing: This style communicates your opinion to persuade the reader to adopt your viewpoint. It’s seen in cover letters, advertising campaigns, political speeches, and editorials.
Guidelines for Enhancing Your Writing Style
Whether you’re crafting a novel or an article, your writing style should be uniquely yours. Here are some general tips to help you develop your writing voice and tone:
Be Original: Concentrate on your message and express it in your unique way. Avoid clichés as they lack creativity and originality. Choose language that reflects both your identity and your audience.
Leverage Your Life Experiences: Your unique experiences have shaped your perspective. Let these experiences inform your writing process and voice.
Be Present in Your Writing: Engage readers in your story by being present in your writing. Use an authentic tone and efficient syntax to convey your story’s details effectively.
Adapt Your Voice: While maintaining a confident and consistent voice, your writing style should vary depending on the genre. In creative writing, your voice will change based on the narrator’s perspective and the narrative mode (first or third person). Writing narratives with extensive dialogue, like screenplays, will require adopting different styles for each character.
Step Out of Your Comfort Zone: Don’t hesitate to experiment with your writing. While your style should reflect your personality, it should also push your literary boundaries. Use various literary devices to enhance your voice.
Read Other Authors: Each author, from William Faulkner to Margaret Atwood to Stephen King to Ernest Hemingway, has a unique voice, tone, and writing style. Read works from your favorite authors and unfamiliar famous writers, focusing on their word usage and sentence structure.
Write Regularly: Consistent writing helps refine your writer’s voice. Many writers maintain a morning journal, a daily ritual involving a three-page, longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing exercise. This practice will improve your writing skills and help you discover your unique style.
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