What Constitutes a Proper Writing Style?

[zookie]

Oh. Well. That's terribly surprising, but comforting all the same, i suppose. But hey, at least you could WRITE the death of one of your characters- a rpg that Blue and I were in is now inactive because i couldn't bring myself to kill one of my characters.^^

( But i couldn't HELP it, Blue- I love Erin! )

[WyndiWingfall]

I like him too, oddly enough. He's very...weird. But in a good way.

[JesanaeTekani]

Um, right.... >.>

Spoiler for the fic, in case you care.





I confess. He actually didn't die. I know I gave him the Monologue and everything, but he lived through the experience -- which had some interesting effects on the other characters as well as the plot in general.

I do have several scenes, probably six pages or so, where I explored what would happen if he did die, and I didn't like it. It basically would have screwed up the rest of the characters to the point where they couldn't finish out the plot, and while I probably would have been able to salvage it, it couldn't possibly have ended the way I wanted it to. It was wonderfully angsty to write, though.

I've also got scenes branching off from those scenes to see what would happen if both he and another character died, or if the other character died instead of him -- both also dead ends.

Why I love character torture, I'll never know..... o.o

[Roguette]

I didn't exactly read all the replies, because my attention span is very flighty right now, but I'll put in my two cents about the topic.

I think that what defines a "good writing style" depends on the reader. Some readers like certain things in their stories, and thus a story with, for example, a lot of description might cause the reader to complain that "this writing style is bad" because "the plot is moving too slowly" and "nobody cares to read three pages on the precise alignment of the table in the kitchen".

And, as I did see mentioned when I was skimming through, some authors just don't naturally write certain genres well.


I think one thing that's important for any writer (and I'm sure any reader would agree) i a good foundation in basic grammar and spelling, because I simply cannot read a story or poem or play (or anything) that is riddled with a myriad of errors. It just hurts my eyes and makes me read more slowly that I would have naturally been able to.

[zookie]

All right, good philosophy.

[WyndiWingfall]

...Wow, that pretty much summarized our entire topic. Good job. ^^