Writing How would you describe your writing style?

[Fox-Trot-9]

The first novel I wrote (New Game+) light novel styled dialogues and stuff. But the plot and progression weren't very Light novelish.
Because of this, there were several readers who voiced their discontent towards this as they wanted the basic strong OP MC that mows down enemies.

Also, I learned that a lot of readers are SOOOOO used to reading CN novels in particular really want their novels dumb downed. I mean, I would write a chapter wherein the MC lies and won't explain in the text that "HEY THE MC LIED" and people won't get it. They get to the next chapter and soon complain. So I guess, as someone with over 260 chapters worth of following the age-old western writing rule (Show don't tell) I can tell you, that for readers who have been so used to mindless stories (especially those on your face, detail-by-detail CN cultivation stories where you can basically skim through 3/4ths of the chapter and still understand what's going on.) you may have to really show and explain everything over and over again. Which, sort of makes sense. I mean, let's use Martial World or SOTR as examples, you may have to repeat things again and again since readers will read over a thousand worth of chapters and would probably forget attacks, effects, etc, especially if the novel is ongoing. You can't expect everyone to remember an ability explained 30 chapters ago (which would equate to more than a month for active followers.)

So I kinda learned all this the hard way. But I think we shouldn't really limit ourselves or totally change our writing style because of this. I mean, with time, and constant postings, you could still get more readers.

Ouch! Damn, I've never had readers like that before, but from what I've seen, it is understandable. Since there's so many chapters spread out, remembering all the details will be difficult, but it leads to some seriously repetitive writing. There's only so many ways you can vary how the same information is said without it going stale. But we're writers, and as writers, we're the gods of the stories we write. We write what we want the way we want it. And that's a good way of thinking about it. If you write it, they will come.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

My writing style is a mixture, I think?
It's certainly influenced by CN and LN, but it's more or less the same style I always had. Although I try to reduce the dialog and word repetition in my chapters as much as possible (it's really difficult) because it's considered to be lazy/bad writing (but it can also be a stylistic device) in my native language.

Still, I'm guilty of something. I just can't seem to make my story flow in between chapters, somehow, everything's episodic, haha

Adapting the style of CNs and LNs is kind of a balancing act, I'm sure, though I haven't written those kinds of novels. But I get you on the repetition part. The only time I make scenes repetitive is when I'm doing it on purpose, but even then, I add in variation in the details / flow of character interactions to cut down on the monotony. Oh, and don't beat yourself up over it. Episodic writing has its place.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

I agree. When deep diving into a character using third person it certainly should be used, and can be used quite well. But often times I see writers dismiss the emotional tone in third person for some reason.

They try the “show don’t tell” but generally leave it to physical descriptions. They can show emotions and thoughts as well. In first person, I don’t see how it can be avoided.

Yeah, I've come across readers like that in the past. I remember one reader who was so used to reading/writing in 1st person that she didn't really appreciate any of the emotional nuance in my 3rd person written story, so I rewrote it in first person, which got her angry at me, b/c it seemed like she was bullying me to other readers. Can't win them all, I guess. I mean, there's only so much emotion you can infer by physical descriptions alone without going into their heads at some point, which is true for 1st person and 3rd person.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

Definitely hints of my past writing in script format and is mostly manga-centric.

....Ish.

I'm still trying to figure it out to be honest.

Don't worry. It's a process. Try imitating the writing styles found in other writers' stories to give you a feel for the nuances of the narration. I find that imitation and emulation (writing it in your own words) is a good way of going about it.

 

[Jessie_Emilyn]

That's okay. I like ramble-y posts. And that's interesting about what you said about fragmenting yourself into various characters. I know I do that for some of my own characters, specifically in where their interests / hobbies lie. And yeah, fleshing out your characters is definitely an exploratory process of expansions edits/revisions, so I get you.

I did it with more core aspects, impulse, fun loving, loyalty (this one was done pretty oddly but comes up with multiple ways and I have some major unwritten stuff to do with it), leadership, logic and manipulation, nurturing, growth and potential and such. For my impulse character how I made them is why they would be so free and run on impulse, why they would seem almost suicidal and pain seeking in their methods and while I never gave all the details I concluded they simply didn't get to have much of a life till they took hold of freedom and ran with it even if it meant they would die young (story is set after death of most characters in a virtual world as a kind of death isn't the end and virtual reality afterlife is the norm).
What is important when designing a character is making their past match their reasoning, or at least having it lead into current things. You can have a coward become brave but you need to have reasons for it and growth but having a coward that never escaped being a coward constantly acting fearless wouldn't match. As long as you have the reasons work then you can make a character however deep or shallow you want but the more you flesh them out the more real they will be.
When characters act it should say a lot about them, when they act completely out of character due to some event it can say even more. When a character has never shown fear is trembling? You know something is going seriously bad that even a monster fears something meaning it is far worse. When a character breaks down and rises up reforged it allows a moment of great change and new found strength. As long as actions match characters enough you might find longer used characters pretty much doing what they would do and not what you might want for the story. At that point you are going to need to adapt your story a little bit to allow the characters to breath. Railroading your characters or story too much can cause issues but allowing some flexibility might greatly improve both aspects even if it makes more work.

 

[ForestDweller]

Awful.

 

[DevilPogoStick]

Don't worry. It's a process. Try imitating the writing styles found in other writers' stories to give you a feel for the nuances of the narration. I find that imitation and emulation (writing it in your own words) is a good way of going about it.

Haha. You know me well. I constantly learn and experiment with my writing. Always. ^_^

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

I did it with more core aspects, impulse, fun loving, loyalty (this one was done pretty oddly but comes up with multiple ways and I have some major unwritten stuff to do with it), leadership, logic and manipulation, nurturing, growth and potential and such. For my impulse character how I made them is why they would be so free and run on impulse, why they would seem almost suicidal and pain seeking in their methods and while I never gave all the details I concluded they simply didn't get to have much of a life till they took hold of freedom and ran with it even if it meant they would die young (story is set after death of most characters in a virtual world as a kind of death isn't the end and virtual reality afterlife is the norm).
What is important when designing a character is making their past match their reasoning, or at least having it lead into current things. You can have a coward become brave but you need to have reasons for it and growth but having a coward that never escaped being a coward constantly acting fearless wouldn't match. As long as you have the reasons work then you can make a character however deep or shallow you want but the more you flesh them out the more real they will be.
When characters act it should say a lot about them, when they act completely out of character due to some event it can say even more. When a character has never shown fear is trembling? You know something is going seriously bad that even a monster fears something meaning it is far worse. When a character breaks down and rises up reforged it allows a moment of great change and new found strength. As long as actions match characters enough you might find longer used characters pretty much doing what they would do and not what you might want for the story. At that point you are going to need to adapt your story a little bit to allow the characters to breath. Railroading your characters or story too much can cause issues but allowing some flexibility might greatly improve both aspects even if it makes more work.

Ah, I think I see what you mean here. The plot needs to be flexible enough to allow your characters to 'breath,' as you said. I tend to do something similar, which involves going back over what I've written and spotting dangling scenes that don't connect with other scenes, and that usually involves characters doing something without any precedent or reason for it the story. So I tend to make more scenes building up their parts in the storyline, so the scenes won't feel like they're dangling. That's what revisions / rewrites are for.

 

[Jessie_Emilyn]

Ah, I think I see what you mean here. The plot needs to be flexible enough to allow your characters to 'breath,' as you said. I tend to do something similar, which involves going back over what I've written and spotting dangling scenes that don't connect with other scenes, and that usually involves characters doing something without any precedent or reason for it the story. So I tend to make more scenes building up their parts in the storyline, so the scenes won't feel like they're dangling. That's what revisions / rewrites are for.

I actually haven't really done revisions and rewrites. I feel I can be pretty in tune with characters and it can fill in a lot of blanks. Even characters talking about someone else can make that someone else develop deeper, like a trait that while might be rumours people have seen it enough for true to be there and actually is (or maybe it isn't and it is a burden that everyone thinks that way loads of ways to play it). I feel my stronger suit can be my characters more, my weaker suit is likely scale like numbers and size etc (and I did reduce something down by a scale of 10 and make another thing more vague to help with that). I generally always know enough key details about the characters so I don't need to think how my characters will react, maybe the words they will say themselves and when one of my friends is looking for advice I try and ask about what traits they want and how they would get to it or more what they would want for backstory and how it might develop traits. Since even race creation can come in (as in non-human humanoids) I can even lend a bit of biological knowledge to give reasoning to things that might be odd or just explain away why it happens.
One thing to consider is how much you share. You don't have to share a lot of their past just know it, maybe due to being someone that had a redemption story they are more likely to forgive but you only hear about it very late into the story even if it keeps coming back to bite them with betrayal. I feel you need to only just give a bit and let their actions and lives do the talking more. It can also work well for prequels or short stories exploring their past just as bonus features even. Since I write in the first person that means I can have the main character thinking back or explaining any event they want but unless someone talks about it they won't know the past of others (at least the details even if they work a bit out). Having way too many details that info dumping it all would be problematic can seem wasteful but when your characters are never straying from themselves then it can be pretty strong.

 

[Farok]

Awful.

Don't belittle yourself like that! Your story is good.

 

[CameronCooke]

Just as the question says. And I'm just curious. Like, this site is ostensibly for novels written in the light novel style/ranobe style you see in Japanese light novels and cellphone novels and Chinese and Korean web novels. I know there's a major difference in sentence structures and scripts used in different languages, but how do you interpret the "light novel" style in English for your novel on SH?

On the other hand, do you just not worry about that and write it like a YA novel in English? Or do you like to experiment with your style based on other fiction books you've read besides light novels? Do you like writing in long winding sentences of literary prose? Or do you like writing in short and clipped minimalist sentences?

I'm just curious, is all. I want to pick you brains a little. Not literarily, of course. Just figuratively. I may be a fluffy butt-stabber, but I'm a nice fluffy butt-stabber.

I am into the light and fluffy with a little bit of drama. I figure real life is already hard enough, why not take my readers on a light and sweet journey. As you have probably guessed, I write mostly romance.

 

[ForestDweller]

Don't belittle yourself like that! Your story is good.

Thank you!

I still feel my prose could be much better, though, and that frustates me.

 

[Farok]

Thank you!

I still feel my prose could be much better, though, and that frustates me.

Aaah, I know that feeling of, "Couldn't my story be better?" It haunts me every day. But don't worry too much over that: it will only ruin your day and make you feel like a shitty writer.

Heh. A guy who can't even finish a chapter properly is trying to give advice. Funny.

 

[Aaky]

My writing style is descriptive. Formal. Precise. Then it becomes perverted, informal and unreliable.

 

[ForestDweller]

Aaah, I know that feeling of, "Couldn't my story be better?" It haunts me every day. But don't worry too much over that: it will only ruin your day and make you feel like a shitty writer.

Heh. A guy who can't even finish a chapter properly is trying to give advice. Funny.

Like you said, I didn't know how to pace my story properly. And that's an objective flaw.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

I actually haven't really done revisions and rewrites. I feel I can be pretty in tune with characters and it can fill in a lot of blanks. Even characters talking about someone else can make that someone else develop deeper, like a trait that while might be rumours people have seen it enough for true to be there and actually is (or maybe it isn't and it is a burden that everyone thinks that way loads of ways to play it). I feel my stronger suit can be my characters more, my weaker suit is likely scale like numbers and size etc (and I did reduce something down by a scale of 10 and make another thing more vague to help with that). I generally always know enough key details about the characters so I don't need to think how my characters will react, maybe the words they will say themselves and when one of my friends is looking for advice I try and ask about what traits they want and how they would get to it or more what they would want for backstory and how it might develop traits. Since even race creation can come in (as in non-human humanoids) I can even lend a bit of biological knowledge to give reasoning to things that might be odd or just explain away why it happens.
One thing to consider is how much you share. You don't have to share a lot of their past just know it, maybe due to being someone that had a redemption story they are more likely to forgive but you only hear about it very late into the story even if it keeps coming back to bite them with betrayal. I feel you need to only just give a bit and let their actions and lives do the talking more. It can also work well for prequels or short stories exploring their past just as bonus features even. Since I write in the first person that means I can have the main character thinking back or explaining any event they want but unless someone talks about it they won't know the past of others (at least the details even if they work a bit out). Having way too many details that info dumping it all would be problematic can seem wasteful but when your characters are never straying from themselves then it can be pretty strong.

Yeah, I see what you mean, but I'm not really that kind of writer. I can't really plan things out a priori and then write it out. I have to actually see it in writing for me to see the patterns of what I'm trying to write, then use revisions and rewrites to get these details (how much is needed and where) into better focus. I share some of what you're saying, since I focus on character and situation with only a little bit of planning before I write fresh material. For me, there needs to be another step in which I could look back over things to spot and rework whatever weaknesses in the plot may appear to me.

 

[Jessie_Emilyn]

Yeah, I see what you mean, but I'm not really that kind of writer. I can't really plan things out a priori and then write it out. I have to actually see it in writing for me to see the patterns of what I'm trying to write, then use revisions and rewrites to get these details (how much is needed and where) into better focus. I share some of what you're saying, since I focus on character and situation with only a little bit of planning before I write fresh material. For me, there needs to be another step in which I could look back over things to spot and rework whatever weaknesses in the plot may appear to me.

To be fair spotting and reworking likely does better than free writing in the long run. I guess I just go with a bit more feel.

 

[Zuko-Mee]

I'm 3rd Person Descriptive.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

To be fair spotting and reworking likely does better than free writing in the long run. I guess I just go with a bit more feel.

To each their own.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

My writing style is descriptive. Formal. Precise. Then it becomes perverted, informal and unreliable.

Hehehe. Writing that involves the passions often does that.