Style is a set of characteristics that distinguishes an author’s writing and makes it unique. These characteristics can include diction, punctuation, and phrasing. A writer’s style is often influenced by their writing genre, but they can also define their style based on their own preferences or personality traits. Developing a personal style can be a fun and challenging endeavor that will result in a distinct and impactful writing voice.
In some instances, a writer’s style can draw attention to itself when they use too many adjectives, formal phrasing, or unnecessarily poetic language. This is known as purple prose and it can detract from a story’s overall effect. In other cases, a writer’s style can be inconspicuous and work well within the story, such as Hemingway’s use of short sentences and simple imagery.
Defining your style aesthetic can be an easy process that begins with looking at the clothing, hair, and makeup of people who capture your interest. Creating a Pinterest board or making a list of fashion icons can help you identify the patterns, colors, silhouettes, and accessories that appeal to you. Alternatively, you can start by looking at your own wardrobe and noticing the pieces that seem to always work for you, like a certain pair of jeans or a classic coat.
While it may be difficult to pin down exactly what separates Hemingway from Steinbeck or Atwood from LeGuin, every writer has a distinctive writing style conveyed through elements such as word choice and narrative structure. In the case of creative writing, a style can even be evident in the way an author chooses to format their text, such as by using a particular type of font or sentence length.
Having an effective and articulate style can be an important skill to have, especially in professional settings where it may be used to demonstrate your abilities and suitability for the job. Interviewers often ask candidates what makes them unique and it’s important to think about how your skills and writing style differ from the rest of the market.
In order to develop a stronger sense of style, it can be helpful to experiment with different forms of writing. The words you choose in a love sonnet will be different than the ones you use in a flash essay about your childhood, and sentence lengths can differ dramatically when working on poetry versus literary fiction. These differences are due to the fact that different styles demand different stylistic choices. Experimenting with these different writing styles can help you determine which ones suit your preferences and work best for each genre of writing. You can then apply these styles as Quick Styles in Microsoft Word, which allows you to easily format any text with the characteristics of a specific style. This can be an efficient way to create consistency across multiple documents and documents that you regularly use. The Quick Style can be modified at any time to alter its formatting.