Karen’s answer to “What’s your advice for aspiring writers?” > Likes and Comments
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What's the difference between the way you tell the story (as in #7) and technique (#3)? I'm assuming technique is the same thing as writing style, but you might mean something different.
Well, I think the meaning varies from person to person, but to me "style" is the micro stuff about how you use language – everything from the rhythm and grammar of the sentence to the dialogue to whether or not you use adverbs on dialogue tags – and technique is the macro stuff that structures the story; viewpoints, how you pace scenes, the use you make of chapters, what you reveal and don't reveal, how you use environments and action, and so on.
In a way, language is the "tell" part of writing for me and the macro stuff is the "show."
Thanks.
(I'm glad to find someone else automatically avoiding doing what lit professors say as well. I love reading but hate having the choices involved shoved down my throat.)
I really appreciate your points. I've been stuck at a place that's paralyzed my writing--the choices, pros, cons, money, time and effort involved in publishing (either self or through traditional means) a well-written story has been overwhelming to be standing on the edge of. The push to be blogging, making a Facebook page for yourself, etc. seems to be the path to success from a lot of sources, but I don't think it's true to the extent they think. The publishing fears are getting in the way of just writing.
At a convention signing table some years ago, William Dietz and I were whiling away a slack moment talking about the merits of various kinds of promotion. (We both come from media backgrounds.) He said he thought the best promo was having plenty of your books on the shelves for people to buy. Replace shelves with a more general "out there" these days, and that still stands.
I feel like I could feel #6 when reading your Republic Commando novels!
Writing is a continuing education process! I've had to gen up on topics I'd never have imagined, from beef farming to oil rigs. It'll all come in useful one day...
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Eleanor
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Apr 29, 2015 12:04AM
What's the difference between the way you tell the story (as in #7) and technique (#3)? I'm assuming technique is the same thing as writing style, but you might mean something different.
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Well, I think the meaning varies from person to person, but to me "style" is the micro stuff about how you use language – everything from the rhythm and grammar of the sentence to the dialogue to whether or not you use adverbs on dialogue tags – and technique is the macro stuff that structures the story; viewpoints, how you pace scenes, the use you make of chapters, what you reveal and don't reveal, how you use environments and action, and so on.In a way, language is the "tell" part of writing for me and the macro stuff is the "show."
Thanks. (I'm glad to find someone else automatically avoiding doing what lit professors say as well. I love reading but hate having the choices involved shoved down my throat.)
I really appreciate your points. I've been stuck at a place that's paralyzed my writing--the choices, pros, cons, money, time and effort involved in publishing (either self or through traditional means) a well-written story has been overwhelming to be standing on the edge of. The push to be blogging, making a Facebook page for yourself, etc. seems to be the path to success from a lot of sources, but I don't think it's true to the extent they think. The publishing fears are getting in the way of just writing.
At a convention signing table some years ago, William Dietz and I were whiling away a slack moment talking about the merits of various kinds of promotion. (We both come from media backgrounds.) He said he thought the best promo was having plenty of your books on the shelves for people to buy. Replace shelves with a more general "out there" these days, and that still stands.
I feel like I could feel #6 when reading your Republic Commando novels!
Writing is a continuing education process! I've had to gen up on topics I'd never have imagined, from beef farming to oil rigs. It'll all come in useful one day...
