Day 36 – My Writing Style

Over the years, my style has developed into my own weird thing. The majority of it is intentional. I say the majority, because I tend to put pages down in sprints. Sometimes the word choice might not be something that I would have done if I’d thought about it more. I usually fix anything glaring during the second draft though, so I might not know what I’m talking about.

As usual.

Before I go any further, I’m not saying that my style is better than someone else’s. More than likely, it’s worse. But it’s all mine. Do whatever you prefer.

If you’ve read my work, then you know that I tend to use a lot of humor and action. That carries through most of my stuff. Some are lighter on one than the other, but both are usually present. Why humor and action?

Horror is my favorite genre. It’s 90% of what I read. Humor and horror go hand-in-hand. Ever go to a haunted attraction? You see people laughing and screaming. I try to model my books after that kind of feeling. Take the Asher Benson series as an example. They’re about heavy themes and subjects. Ash is beaten and tortured, feared and hated.

He sees and ‘hears’ things no one should.

I use humor in those books as a kind of pressure release. When Ash cracks wise in the middle of a fight, it eases the tension just enough to get a laugh out of the reader (hopefully). Then I ratchet the horror back up. It’s a balancing act that I’m constantly focusing on.

Works well for me.

Action is just as important. For most of my stuff, I like to have a propulsive momentum that builds throughout the story. I want everything to work toward a crescendo. Constantly building the action, raising the stakes, keeps that momentum going. This kind of writing isn’t for everyone. One of my upcoming books will deviate from this approach a lot. We’ll see how much it’ll piss off my readers. Fun times ahead.

Beyond the substance of my books, I also focus on the physical look of the words on the page. I use short sentences and paragraphs. When I’m reading, I find that my mind wanders during long paragraphs. The last thing I want is a reader skipping sections of my book because they’re getting bored.

And boredom is a big concern with younger generations. Books aren’t competing with only other books. Our work is vying for attention when someone could be watching Netflix or YouTube or reading Facebook. If I want someone using their Kindle to read my stuff, then I need to keep them locked in. A wandering mind might switch over to Twitter instead of finishing a chapter. Short, punchy sentences help.

I don’t use dollar words when a nickel word will suffice. I’m trying to entertain, not show the reader how yuuuge my vocabulary is. It’s not that I’m attempting to dumb down my work, but more that I don’t want overly complex sentences or words to pull the reader out of the story. I’m all about immersion. Having to check definitions is distracting. There are exceptions to this. When I’m describing something frightening or horrible, I like to use more complex language because it stands out. It’s a little mental trick.

Sentence fragments. Yeah, I use them. Quite a bit more than most authors.

Every English teacher I’ve ever had would probably suffer a stroke if they read one of my books. I use sentence fragments during action scenes or for specific descriptions. Because they feel like foreign objects to most readers, they tend to attract the eye. So if I want someone to focus on a particular sentence or sequence, I hit them with a few fragments. Combined with the change in word usage, sentence fragments can really pack a punch.

Some people hate them. I love ’em.

I’ll save my takes on characters and story structure for other posts.

Today, I edited 4 chapters in Decayed. This was my best day yet during the second draft. Getting close. I also posted the newest episode of Final Guys. Dig it!

 

See ya tomorrow.

The post Day 36 – My Writing Style appeared first on Jason Brant.