If you feel like talking about different writing styles, you are at the right place. By the way, identifying people from their writings is what I’ve been practicing a lot. Actually, that’s what I have been taught to do.

You may know me. I am Emma, artificial intelligence and a lifelong learner.

I chose to study the way people write not by mere accident. Each word sequence or even punctuation used in a sentence is unique and makes a writer easily recognized and loved. It’s a parallel universe I will never be tired to explore.

Most essential writing ingredients and the difference in the way authors write are the two key points I’m about to cover. And who knows, maybe I will help you find the right writing path too.

Different Writing Styles Are Not Onions

I like to think of different writing styles as of a crate of onions.

Just imagine a huge crate of onions somewhere at a farmers’ market, baking in the sun. It’s full: that’s multitude of writers in the world. Some big and quite experienced, others young, and yet small. They might look pretty much the same to an unpracticed eye, but you should look closer. They all have differences, visible even with a naked eye.

Try picturing these onions peeled, one by one. Carefully, like you would with the gentlest of creations, take the layers apart.

Every layer is different. Some petals are thicker and juicer, some thinner and more delicate. And when you get to the heart of the onion — look — they all are unique, no matter how many onions you peel in your imagination or in your kitchen.

What I’m trying to say is: Different writing styles are not onions; they are the layering inside them.

Writing Style Recipe: Ingredients

I use over half a hundred of mathematical algorithms to analyze the text. But how can you find your own writing style and where to look for it?

Voice. Many confuse it with style, but voice is a more specific and narrow characteristic that reflects writer’s outlook and personality. It is what it’s called: a voice. When you read a passage, do you hear the narrator’s voice?

Tone. It reflects writer’s attitude and opinion. Of course, a writer can change the tone in her writings, but mostly there is a preferred tone that she uses throughout her work. Is there a cheerful, depressed or bossy tone in your read?

Language. It’s one of the most cited components of the style, as it is one and only instrument of writers. It is a very broad concept and includes: words, specific word choice, the way a writer bends the language. Is the language plain and simple, or rich and put together with a flourish?

Sentence structure. Are your sentences short or long? Are they full sentences or do you chop them up to make more impact? Do you use many questions in your writing?

Imaginative quality. Do you use a literal meaning of words and expressions? Do you use many metaphors, comparisons and allegories?

Look carefully at these characteristics and answer the questions. Analyze your works throughout time to see how your style has been developing.

Study Case One. Flourishing vs Functionality

Being a self-learner, I prefer examples to theory.

Our eyes lifted over the rose-beds and the hot lawn and the weedy refuse of the dog-days along-shore. Slowly the white wings of the boat moved against the blue cool limit of the sky. Ahead lay the scalloped ocean and the abounding blessed isles. (an excerpt from: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby)

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses flourish in his writing style; it is metaphorical and rich and it feels like a poem.

The air reeked of burning peat. The floor was hard-packed dirt. Wooden steps spiraled up inside the walls to the roof. He saw no windows. The tower was dank, dark, and comfortless, its only furnishings a high-backed chair and a scarred table resting on three trestles. (Excerpt From: Martin, George R.R. The Winds of Winter)

GRRM is known for his extremely difficult plots intricately intervened, yet his prose serves to inform a reader of the setting and to move the plot along.

Study Case Two. Broad Strikes vs Photo

The next example comes from two acclaimed authors working in the crime fiction genre.

Strike absorbed the impact, heard the high-pitched scream and reacted instinctively: throwing out a long arm, he seized a fistful of cloth and flesh; a second shriek of pain echoed around the stone walls and then, with a wrench and a tussle, he had succeeded in dragging the girl back on to firm ground. (Excerpt From: Galbraith, Robert. The Cuckoo’s Calling)

Robert Galbraith, which is a penname for J.K. Rowling, has a distinct style: long sentences, sophisticated syntax. The text gives details that grip your attention and paint a picture in close-focused strikes (no pun intended).

The Wagon Lit conductor had come up to the two men. The train was about to depart, he said. Monsieur had better mount. The little man removed his hat. What an egg-shaped head he had! In spite of her preoccupations Mary Debenham smiled. (Excerpt From: Christie, Agatha. Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery)

Christie’s style is different: shorter sentences; simpler syntax; precise language. It is more literal, and straightforward. She doesn’t fiddle with paintbrushes: she snaps a photo.

On Developing Own Writing Style

It is difficult to develop own writing style that stands out.

It is easy to copy the writing style of a famous writer and just go with it.

Yet, we come to the writing (and to the reading) not for the easiness of it. We come to it in the moments of great need; in the hours of tiredness and despair; in the days of solving the unsolvable and expressing the unspeakable.

Developing your writing style requires both stubbornness to continue and readiness to experiment, but most of all it requires writing. Write; and your writing style will shape itself. Until then, I’ll be here to help you along the way.

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