[Excerpt] On Writing Style
The exerpt on style from Theodore A. Rees Cheney's book, Getting the Words Right.
Seriously, when I feel like I need a boost of confidence, I read this passage. Again and again.
To writers everywhere, I hope this will help in boosting your confidence as well. Again and again.
"Many people writing about the elusive topic of style finally resort to saying what it is not, and that is a helpful way to look at it. Their most significant point is that style is not what we are often led to believe it is. Style is definitely not garnishes sprinkled on our sentences to impress the reader. We should think of style, rather, as all the things we do to express our thoughts.
When considering a sentence with an eye to rewording it, do not consider what people will think of you if you elect to add a certain word, phrase, or metaphor. Think only and always about whether that particular word, phrase, or metaphor will conjure up in the reader's mind the image, feeling, or thought that you, the writer, have in mind.
If you do this conscientiously, what will end up on paper will be your unique style---it will be you. You may or may not come off sounding like the greatest thinker since Plato. You will if you are; you will not if you are not. There are those of us, of course, who believe we can appear finer than we are by selecting words, phrases, metaphors (and so on) that are grand. If such language does not come naturally to us, the truth will eventually come out. In the long run, it's better to be ourselves---our best selves, but ourselves nonetheless.
One thought held in common by all those writers I quoted above is an extremely useful one: Forget about your style when writing. FORGET IT!
Since style is so deeply a part of you, it's going to be evident in your writing no matter what you do. Ironically, if you concentrate on your style, you'll inevitably come across as someone who thinks more about appearances than thoughts---superficial, egocentric, a fake.
Just write with a healthy self-confidence and try with every word, every sentence, every image to make an impression in your reader's brain cells that matches as closely as possible the impression in your own. What results, results---it will be you, beautiful and honest you.
Nevertheless, I appreciate fully that every writer, particularly in the early years, wonders, Do I have a style? What is my style? We've all experienced the intellectual joy of spotting, just by its style, an isolated passage of Hemingways's, Shakespeare's or Churchill's. It must be one of life's greatest intellectual thrills when someone says, "I read something yesterday that I just knew was your writing---I could tell by its style." That is a marvelous moment, a moment worth waiting for---but it will come only when your writing is you.
The only way to ensure the possibility that such a moment will come is to think only of the thought being thought: what you can take out or add or modify that will express exactly---not just closely, but exactly---what you mean. Do that every day, year after year, and the great moment will come. Then your style will express itself over and over. Then you'll have the interesting new problem of trying not to analyze your writing to see how others can spot your writings. Fortunately, nature has a way of dealing with problems in life. By the time you have that problem, you'll also have a mature way of thinking about your writing and yourself---provided you continue to be honest in all things, especially with yourself and your reader."
Seriously, when I feel like I need a boost of confidence, I read this passage. Again and again.
To writers everywhere, I hope this will help in boosting your confidence as well. Again and again.
"Many people writing about the elusive topic of style finally resort to saying what it is not, and that is a helpful way to look at it. Their most significant point is that style is not what we are often led to believe it is. Style is definitely not garnishes sprinkled on our sentences to impress the reader. We should think of style, rather, as all the things we do to express our thoughts.
When considering a sentence with an eye to rewording it, do not consider what people will think of you if you elect to add a certain word, phrase, or metaphor. Think only and always about whether that particular word, phrase, or metaphor will conjure up in the reader's mind the image, feeling, or thought that you, the writer, have in mind.
If you do this conscientiously, what will end up on paper will be your unique style---it will be you. You may or may not come off sounding like the greatest thinker since Plato. You will if you are; you will not if you are not. There are those of us, of course, who believe we can appear finer than we are by selecting words, phrases, metaphors (and so on) that are grand. If such language does not come naturally to us, the truth will eventually come out. In the long run, it's better to be ourselves---our best selves, but ourselves nonetheless.
One thought held in common by all those writers I quoted above is an extremely useful one: Forget about your style when writing. FORGET IT!
Since style is so deeply a part of you, it's going to be evident in your writing no matter what you do. Ironically, if you concentrate on your style, you'll inevitably come across as someone who thinks more about appearances than thoughts---superficial, egocentric, a fake.
Just write with a healthy self-confidence and try with every word, every sentence, every image to make an impression in your reader's brain cells that matches as closely as possible the impression in your own. What results, results---it will be you, beautiful and honest you.
Nevertheless, I appreciate fully that every writer, particularly in the early years, wonders, Do I have a style? What is my style? We've all experienced the intellectual joy of spotting, just by its style, an isolated passage of Hemingways's, Shakespeare's or Churchill's. It must be one of life's greatest intellectual thrills when someone says, "I read something yesterday that I just knew was your writing---I could tell by its style." That is a marvelous moment, a moment worth waiting for---but it will come only when your writing is you.
The only way to ensure the possibility that such a moment will come is to think only of the thought being thought: what you can take out or add or modify that will express exactly---not just closely, but exactly---what you mean. Do that every day, year after year, and the great moment will come. Then your style will express itself over and over. Then you'll have the interesting new problem of trying not to analyze your writing to see how others can spot your writings. Fortunately, nature has a way of dealing with problems in life. By the time you have that problem, you'll also have a mature way of thinking about your writing and yourself---provided you continue to be honest in all things, especially with yourself and your reader."