08-03-2006, 05:25 PM
I recently picked up Strunk & White's Elements of Style, the small book that can be of greater help in all professional writing than any other. This book shows it's value in that in spite of being decades old, none of it's content is any less valid today in the start of the twenty-first century than it was in the early half of the twentieth century. You may notice I have quoted this book since getting it, namely in response to Dreamer Girl.
And the thing that this book ultimately emphasizes, is that style is never improper but where it is properly improper. Namely, in a narrative, it is acceptable to report lines of dialogue, or internal monologue, exactly as they were said or thought, as you recall them, or in the fashion due the character speaking. I find that the ultimate rule Strunk laid down decades ago is one which allows me to easily classify the point at which a story, fanfiction or otherwise, moves from good towards bad, and to me that is Rule Seventeen:
OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS.
Vigorous writing in concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detial and treat subjects only in outlines, but that every word tell.
This, to me, is the ultimate point of style. Certainly personal style may allow for a selection of unnecessary words, but this single rule emphasizes that vigorous, strong, compelling writing is direct, brief, and clear by using as few words as possible. And so, in a compelling piece of writing, be it fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry, a journal or a letter, you should avoid the temptation to be overly flowery, fluffy, dark, or whatever other mood may strike into you the inspiration to overdescribe persons, places and things, whether concrete or abstract.
Even before reading this book, I was learning the importance of Rule Seventeen as I picked up the small hobby of writing drabbles. In order to be concise, and to tell as much as possible within exactly 100 words, I learned to look a my work and see where a word, or group of words, was unnecessary.
So here is where discussion comes into this thread. . .
What do you feel to be the most significant element of style in writing? This may be concerning fiction or nonfiction, sexual or nonsexual stories, and anything inbetween those extremes.
And the thing that this book ultimately emphasizes, is that style is never improper but where it is properly improper. Namely, in a narrative, it is acceptable to report lines of dialogue, or internal monologue, exactly as they were said or thought, as you recall them, or in the fashion due the character speaking. I find that the ultimate rule Strunk laid down decades ago is one which allows me to easily classify the point at which a story, fanfiction or otherwise, moves from good towards bad, and to me that is Rule Seventeen:
OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS.
Vigorous writing in concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detial and treat subjects only in outlines, but that every word tell.
This, to me, is the ultimate point of style. Certainly personal style may allow for a selection of unnecessary words, but this single rule emphasizes that vigorous, strong, compelling writing is direct, brief, and clear by using as few words as possible. And so, in a compelling piece of writing, be it fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry, a journal or a letter, you should avoid the temptation to be overly flowery, fluffy, dark, or whatever other mood may strike into you the inspiration to overdescribe persons, places and things, whether concrete or abstract.
Even before reading this book, I was learning the importance of Rule Seventeen as I picked up the small hobby of writing drabbles. In order to be concise, and to tell as much as possible within exactly 100 words, I learned to look a my work and see where a word, or group of words, was unnecessary.
So here is where discussion comes into this thread. . .
What do you feel to be the most significant element of style in writing? This may be concerning fiction or nonfiction, sexual or nonsexual stories, and anything inbetween those extremes.