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Writing: Writing Styles and Prose

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    For the good of Impish Idea.

    Please discuss. Possible subtopics: different author’s styles.

    runs away

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    I notice that Eoin Colfer usually has sarcastic, world-weary characters that are old beyond their years. He also uses very dry and sarcastic humor, instead of straight prose.

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    I like his style. I think it’s a bit clever.

    Dianna Wynne Jones has this beautiful way of writing that makes things seem “rollick”-y. I saw Howl’s Moving Castle described as a “witty, rollicking fantasy” and I agree with that description.

  4.  
    I've always been a fan of narrators who break the fourth wall (Ex. Just-so stories, Narnia) and address the audience. It sounds so welcoming and whimsical to me.
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    Ah. I’m very fond of those sorts of stories. C. S. Lewis, as I recall, seemed to address his readers with a certain kindness, a je ne sais quoi that was nice. His writing is very nice when you’re reading as a child. I remember reading through the part when they’re on the Dawn Treader and they’re going through the dream/nightmare place. That scared me.

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    I strive for a terse clarity somewhere between Hemingway at his best and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy.

    • CommentAuthorWitrin
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2009 edited
     

    Ha-ha. Is that a Paolini reference? He’ll never live that down.

    I love Diana Wynne Jones’ prose. Kevin Crossley-Holland is good, too.

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    I love Diana Wynne Jones’ prose.

    It’s so wonderfully rollicky and utterly charming!

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    I like his style. I think it’s a bit clever.

    Ah, I love Eoin Colfer’s prose; never fails to make me laugh. I enjoy Terry Pratchett’s prose too; ‘tis very funny. ;)

    • CommentAuthorWitrin
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2009
     

    Terry Pratchett is a genius. Sometimes, though, you get the feeling that he’s too aware of how funny he is.

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    Markus Zusak. Especially in the Book Thief. It’s poetic without being flowerly.

    I also adore Poe. He scared the shit out of me in junior high.

    And Hugo (when he’s not rambling about the sewer system) is very nice to read as well. He doesn’t have insanely long sentences like other classic writers, yet still retains the classic feel. His style makes reading aforementioned rants abou the sewr more interesting.

    Also Dostoevsky. I just love his dialouge. All his characters are insane.

  12.  

    Markus Zusak. Especially in the Book Thief. It’s poetic without being flowerly.

    Agreed. His prose is very pretty indeed.
    I also enjoy Dumas’ prose; even in French, his prose is very flowy; it makes for a very beautiful book, I’d say. (if that makes sense ;P)

    • CommentAuthorliadan14
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2009
     

    On the subject of breaking the fourth wall; Goldman, in the Princess Bride (at least, the 25th anniversary edition I have), does it really well. It sort of connects the story itself with a semi-autobiographical (ha, ha) story and with a direct note from the man who wrote it to the reader. It’s very cool.

    Diana Wynne Jones, I agree. Like in that scene in HMC, with the green slime, she sort of had this matter-of-fact way of talking about extremely silly, whimsical things…

  14.  

    Oh Goldman’s so funny! I love his prose; I agree, the whole book was done very well.

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    I also enjoy Dumas’ prose; even in French, his prose is very flowy; it makes for a very beautiful book, I’d say. (if that makes sense ;P)
    X
    I’ve not read him in French, but I rather like him. (Edmond Dantes isht MINE!!!)

    Ahaha.

    I like Douglas Adams, too. He’s hilarious.

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2009
     

    Very much so. Adams is great. I also love Tolkien’s voice, at least in the Hobbit.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2009
     

    Poe will always have a special place in my heart. C. S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, I love them all.

  18.  

    Kate Griffin has a very visceral writing style.

    She wrote an urban fantasy that beats Neverwhere. True story.

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    The thing about Tolkien is that sometimes his sentences are a bit awkward; you have to read through them again to understand exactly what happened.

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    Tolkien… There isn’t any doubt in me (perhaps) that his writing is lovely. Of course it is. But it can be difficult to actually read through all of it. It took me several tries to finally get past the first few pages in The Fellowship of the Ring, and once I finally got into it, I had momentum. I read The Two Towers and I began The Return of the King, but I stopped somewhere because all of that momentum was gone.

    Poe will always have a special place in my heart. C. S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, I love them all.

    I love them as well. They’re my ‘classic writers.’

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    The thing about Tolkien is that his vocabulary isn’t difficult- the way he writes the sentences is the part that’s difficult to read if you’re not used to it.

    •  
      CommentAuthorArtimaeus
    • CommentTimeSep 16th 2009
     

    Bump (shifty eyes)

    I third the Goldman reference. The Princess bride was genius.

    Also Lemony Snicket (whatever they guy’s real name is) has a distinct style.

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    Lemony Snicket… oh God I love him and his style. She swooned, a word which here means “Fell on the floor in a melodramatic way, since Lemony indeed had a marvelous style.

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    The Princess Bride was genius.

    For the longest time, I thought the author really was S. Morgenstern. XD

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    For a while, I thought that the bit about him being William Goldman, who really had books published, fiction.

    I looked at the cover, then.

    •  
      CommentAuthorArtimaeus
    • CommentTimeSep 16th 2009
     

    For the longest time, I thought the author really was S. Morgenstern. XD

    Yea, me too. XP It’s best if you read the book that way. I hate that I can’t talk to people about the book without spoiling it for them.

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    Lemony Snicket… oh God I love him and his style. She swooned, a word which here means “Fell on the floor in a melodramatic way, since Lemony indeed had a marvelous style.

    I love him too! When I was younger, I thought he was a real person, not that the Baudelaires were real, but that Lemony Snicket was his real name. I love how he always did the “a word which here means…”

    • CommentAuthorMorvius
    • CommentTimeSep 18th 2009
     
    Yes! Lemony Snicket! His writing style is awesome and is perfectly suited for dark comedy.
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    On the topic of dark comedy, Roald Dahl is also quite good. :D

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    When I was younger, I thought he was a real person, not that the Baudelaires were real, but that Lemony Snicket was his real name.

    So did I, and when my mom showed me a website that had all the author’s real names, I told her not to tell me what his real name was.

    I also refuse to believe that Santa isn’t real.

  31.  

    I also refuse to believe that Santa isn’t real.

    My friend believes in Santa as well. I have fun teasing her about it. ;P

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    Elizabeth Knox has a really poetic, intense style (okay, I lifted that from the Dreamhunter dust jacket, but it fits). She has a way of detailing a setting without forgetting the fact that there’s meant to be a story going on.

    On a side note, I read Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, and didn’t make it through half of the book. I found it a little slow. But I loved the way he always wrote ‘the man Jack’.

    LEMONY SNICKET NAME SPOILERS:

  33.  

    I just read the Graveyard Book and found it to be quite well paced… I dunno, I guess the motive for murder was slightly disappointing, but other than that I found it to be very good indeed. Definitely worthy of the Newbery Medal.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeSep 19th 2009
     

    I really liked Betty Smith’s style, simple, smooth and is deliverers the message.

  35.  

    Personally, I find Santa creepier then Edward, he sneaks into everybody’s house and watches them sleep. :P

    But at least he doesn’t love them in that way. Oh, wait.

  36.  

    Except, that song is about the kid’s mum kissing his dad dressed up as Santa.

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    Personally, I find Santa creepier then Edward, he sneaks into everybody’s house and watches them sleep. :P

    This past Christmas me and my brother were watching one of those claymation Christmas specials where Santa quits/ There’s a scene about midway through where one of the kids takes Santa(posing as a derelict old man IIRC) home to meet his parents, and the kid’s old man recognizes Santa from when he saw him as a kid.

    Cue flashback with the kid waking up to see Santa, who is standing in the kid’s room and just staring with a weirdly hostile look on his face, and the whole scene has about the most sinister lighting ever.

    Naturally, we made about 800 raep jokes.

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    Be afraid. Be very afraid.

  39.  

    Personally, I find Santa creepier then Edward

    BWAHAHAHAA! LET IT HAUNT YOUR NIGHTMARES!!!

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    Marquis, how could you! IT’S SANTA PORN! (not really, but still…)

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2009
     

    Let’s get back on topic…

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    Er, yeah.

  44.  

    Right, OK then.

    I really liked Betty Smith’s style, simple, smooth and is deliverers the message.

    Agreed. Her writing style is very simplistic, which was quite perfect for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

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    Am I the only one who didn’t love the bit in which she talks about the family history; the parents’ stories and the like? It felt so… egh.

    I enjoyed it overall, but that bit was something I disliked.

  46.  

    Ok, question. How do you make your writing more than just telling what happened? (Does this make sense?)

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    I don’t think I understand.

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    Well, there’s a difference between a really well written book and just something that tells you exactly what happens as it happens, right?

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    Oh, yes. I think most history textbooks are like that (‘Then this happened. And this, too, happened. And it’s important.’).

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2009
     

    Well, there’s a difference between a really well written book and just something that tells you exactly what happens as it happens, right?

    Relate with the reader, they’ll form a connection with the book that way, and feel involved in it.

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    (‘Then this happened. And this, too, happened. And it’s important.’

    I think that’s because it’s a list. If you simply rattle off facts without any humanity to them, then it’s boring.

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    Yeah. The human element is very, very important. If you just talk about the twenties, as opposed to getting inside the head of a (stereotypical 20s person coming up) flapper, sure, you’ll get more info on the decade, but it won’t be as interesting.

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeSep 22nd 2009 edited
     

    True. Good history teachers don’t just teach you the facts, they tell you about the interactions and the effects and how it affects us today. You’ve got to give more than just the bare facts, or it’s boring.

  54.  

    I’m talking about an average, dull read. I have had some rather good history teachers, though… hm. At least one.

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeSep 23rd 2009
     

    Same principle applies to books, I’d say. They can’t just be like “This happened. And this happened. And this happened.” They also have to tell you about the side events, show the effects events have on characters/the world/the plot, everything like that.

  56.  

    My history teacher is AWESOME. She steals the student-bribery-chocolate from the other teachers in her office and she talks back all the time.

    /hero-worship.
    Yes, this is what I aspire to be.

    Anyway, we’re off-topic. What happened to the Impish Ideal??

  57.  

    Well, textbooks are still writing, are they not?

    Anyway. I love Oscar Wilde’s writing style in The PIcture of Dorian Gray. It’s so lovely that it makes me weep (but not really).

  58.  

    I have to read that.

    Agh, the list is so long!

    •  
      CommentAuthorSMARTALIENQT
    • CommentTimeSep 26th 2009 edited
     

    Good history teachers don’t just teach you the facts, they tell you about the interactions and the effects and how it affects us today.

    My history teacher (the one who used “the Internets” correctly in a sentence), tells us stories about cause and effect. Like South Carolina, which was always weird and quirky about slavery, or about George Washington and how his fort-building FAIL started the French and Indian War.

    And for on-topic-ness: do you know any writers that have interesting dialogue styles?

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    It depends on what you mean.

    Well, I also love Oscar Wilde’s dialogue in his various plays, as well as his dialogue style in general.

    But I think I have difficulty hearing whether dialogue is stilted or not…

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    Me, too, unless it’s blindingly obvious.

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    Yep. It sounds all nice to me, and then someone says ‘Are you reading this?’

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