# Writing - questions regarding style



## Penelope Dairas (Jun 10, 2011)

I have a faint feeling that it's a kinda personal topic. If this should rather go into Critique thread, please move it there.

I'm having a dilemma over my style of writing. I'll use the examples (warning: NSFW) of Prophets of Avia, Deal - The Good Part and That Vicious Dwagon from my FA gallery. I cannot really make a conclusion myself, as I'm fighting the kind of depression that ultimately deems everything I've done or created worthless - and therefore stains my sane outlook on many things.

Let's start from the end. That Vicious Dwagon is an old piece of mine, and more of a proof of concept than anything serious - I believe that it marks the beginning of my serious writing, as before it was mostly tiny pieces of text that showed no real plot and immature emo venting. (Don't ask.) Still, it pokes something I have trouble with even in real life: it's a story written without a single dialogue line. I am a naturally quiet person in a majority of situations and sometimes I find it awkward to start a conversation about seemingly silly things. [insert socially awkward penguin here] I think that, partially, it continues into my later stories, even the most recent ones; there is much more dialogue than there was before, but I still have that feeling that I'm doing too few of that when (I shouldn't do this, I shouldn't do this) compared to other furry writers I enjoy reading.

I'm also worried about the volume of my writing. On one side, there is this "more = better" equation I sometimes agree with, and the fact that my stories tend to be rather short (I really shouldn't do this) when compared to others' - my longest one is just under eight thousand words. On the other, there is a certain sentence I have heard from somewhere that you should value your reader's time and not throw novel-long wordbricks at him over and over. I think it might come from the fact that I'm a person who tends to lose interest in what they write, and some story ideas of mine I plan on turning into something bigger either are split into tiny chapters and published online like that, or don't see daylight at all when I want to finish them before showing to the rest of the world. That's the point I'm probably most perplexed about; challenges like NaNoWriMo might be out of my reach if I decide to continue writing small pieces often; I might simply not be able to write anything that size even with no set time limit to do it.

Another thing I've noticed recently (to be precise, in Deal - The Good Part; you can notice that I noticed it on page 5) is the way I sometimes write sexual scenes. Prophets of Avia is a good example of that - I actually write just enough to show the general idea of what is about to happen and tease the readers, while not really showing any real juice. Again, I have found out that I do it on purpose, though once or twice I used it to write myself out of a scene I did not really feel comfortable with writing at that very moment. Again, I think that I may be doing that too often and cutting out too much.

I'd like to note that I don't want to write within my comfort zones, too. I want to train many possible scenes with many outcomes in order to become as versatile as possible, so it isn't really okay with me to limit myself to what I *want* to write - because then, I'd probably become lazy and stop writing altogether.

I'm posting it up in a few different spots, to gather some more responses. Is there any advice you would like to give me about that? Is there anything in particular that I should remember when continuing with my stories?


Links to the stories mentioned above: (NSFW)
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5386601/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2680834/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5905616/


----------



## Raphael (Jun 10, 2011)

Let's see, the main thing you should remember is that you're writing is going to be a different style that anybody else's. When you read other stories, you're naturally and subconciously going to see the things that they write, that they do not see, things that you may enjoy, and think/notice are lacking from your stories. I used to do this, then look at mine and think I'm missing elements, and then I'd think my stories had gaps and holes. The thing is, you don't notice the value of your own stories as much when reading through it yourself. Most writers have a vital problem: they describe, they do not show. Once you find out how to show, and not describe, your writing improves so much. 

 As for volume, I love volume. I think that volume needs to be executed a certain way however, not so much how many words it has but how deep it goes. Read my story Vorare, A Love Story (http://jcfurr7.deviantart.com/art/Vorare-A-Love-Story-202496342), you might see what I'm talking about. It's very short, but has a lot of volume. 

Obviously readers do not want to read 5 paragraphs explaining 1 simple thing, but you can pull it off by the words you choose because if it's well-written readers won't even notice that they just read 5 paragraphs. 

 I hope some of my blabbering helps or clarifies. :\


----------



## sunandshadow (Jun 10, 2011)

Different readers prefer different lengths of story.  I personally like novels (average novel length is 50k-80k words), so I was disappointed when I noticed that an ebook I bought a few days ago was only 16k words.  On the other hand, my best friend reads mainly short stories and he thinks the ones that are 10k words are extremely long, wearisome unless they are a great read.  So, whatever length you write, some people like that; you should write the length you are comfortable with and seems natural to your ideas.  The easiest way to get a bad long story is to inappropriately use a short idea, and the easiest way to get a bad short story is to inappropriately use a long idea.


----------



## foozzzball (Jun 10, 2011)

Penelope Dairas said:


> ...
> 
> I'm having a dilemma over my style of writing.
> 
> ...


 
Stop. 

Secret Truth 1: Nobody except you will write your stories for you. Ever.

Secret Truth 2: One story, written and completed, even if it's done badly and you can see a million problems with it, is worth a thousand unfinished stories that would have been perfect.

Secret Truth 3: There will always be something new to write tomorrow. Don't feel like you've only got 'one chance' to get the story right - there will be another, and another, and another.

You are worrying. You are miserable. You are self conscious. These are all good things, in my opinion. These are the things that help forge a person into someone who can write something worthwhile. Don't push yourself too hard, but do push yourself. I have no answers for your specific problems, but did want to chip in and say that you are probably doing fine, and that emo venting is completely allowed.


----------

