Desecration - a word (or ten) too far!

[hairyhead]

My pet hate in stories are people who write in a staccato style. Almost using a bullet point approach to a story.

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

"The fox was quick. He was brown. He jumped over a dog. The dog was lazy."

I tend to regard authors who write like this as immature. Rarely do I see these authors improving and I quickly give up, moving on to a new search - even if the story has promise and better crafted.

Then I found Desecration. You could not, in anyway, describe their style as staccato.

"With remarkable swiftness and agile precision, the russet-furred vulpine creature propelled itself in a graceful arc, traversing the inert form of a lethargic canine whose languid posture suggested an utter disinterest in the unfolding acrobatics."

I gave up after two stories. It's a shame as their stories have some potential but not with this level of over description.

 

[AlinaX]

Both styles have their uses but not in concentrated form.

 

[StillStunned]

The more I write, the less I write.

I think there's a tendency among beginning writers to immerse themselves in the full richness of the English language. They want to avoid using simple words and simple constructions because they don't want to be seen as simple. They want to show off their mastery of vocabulary and grammar.

The thing is, though, that you can use basic language very effectively in English. Simple words often have more power than less common ones, for the plain reason that the reader doesn't have to waste any time or effort ploughing through them. And they give you greater control of the rhythm of your writing, which personally I think is one of the most important aspects of fiction.

That's not to say that you shouldn't ever use fancy words. They're part of the English language, they can be very effective if used judiciously. But there's a reason why common words are so common: they do the job without drawing attention away from the story.

 

[lovecraft68]

One of my pet hates is people calling out authors publicly because you don't like their style.

I get what you're saying, that example would make my head hurt and I don't know that I could keep reading if the whole story is done that way, but I'm sure they work hard on it and think its good, I'm sure some readers do as well. We're all different writers, we all have different tastes in reading, so I don't see the purpose of harping on one we don't like or by the same token gushing over and pushing something we do like.

For me, I keep it simple, I narrate and write dialogue as if basic everyday people are the ones doing so. I have an extensive vocabulary due to my reading habits over the years, but I don't see the need to flex it and use ten dollar words that are off putting or put effort into being 'clever'.

As time goes on I see myself more and more as a storyteller than a "writer' because I see too much pretentiousness in some of the writers here and I'm not like that.

 

[Soixenta]

I get what you're saying, that example would make my head hurt and I don't know that I could keep reading if the whole story is done that way, but I'm sure they work hard on it and think its good, I'm sure some readers do as well. We're all different writers, we all have different tastes in reading, so I don't see the purpose of harping on one we don't like or by the same token gushing over and pushing something we do like.
(...)
As time goes on I see myself more and more as a storyteller than a "writer' because I see too much pretentiousness in some of the writers here and I'm not like that.

Don't you think that some writers consider the *way* they write to be just as important as *what* they write? For some of us, it's not pretentious to try to finetune our words - it's part of the reason why we write. We don't want to just tell a story, we want our words to enhance the story.

Stories are easy to come up with. The craft of writing them is the hard part. It's not pretentious to want to excel at that.

 

[lovecraft68]

Don't you think that some writers consider the *way* they write to be just as important as *what* they write? For some of us, it's not pretentious to try to finetune our words - it's part of the reason why we write. We don't want to just tell a story, we want our words to enhance the story.

Stories are easy to come up with. The craft of writing them is the hard part. It's not pretentious to want to excel at that.

It's not pretentious to want to do your best.

It becomes pretentious when someone pushes their style of writing or preference for reading as being better than another's. That's simply not true. What works best for you is not the same for another person.

My grammar was flat out awful when I started here back in 2010. Bad as in I look back and cringe, but I was just having fun. Over the years its improved but still needs work. Passable is what I'd give myself now. Point is I understand working at it and the 'craft' as you put it takes effort and drive and wanting to keep getting better.

That's an individual effort being made and maybe not everyone is that dedicated and if not? That's fine.

There's a difference between advice, "This is what works for me" and preaching, and preaching is where its pretentious

The OP does not like a certain mode of writing, that's their prerogative, publicly scolding an author by name is tacky.