I've been reviewing stories on Wattpad for a while now and, boy, has that been a journey. Your stories have made me gasp and squeal. Your stories have made me laugh and cry.
But, from time to time, your stories have made me cringe.
In commemoratio...
I am a reader, though, and I like to think I have a pretty good eye for catching and communicating things I don't enjoy about stories. So, these are all coming from my experience of what I have found in my years of reviewing.
Hence, 101 Writing Tips from an Exhausted Reviewer.
Not, you know, 101 Writing Tips from a Sexy #1 Bestselling Author.
But yes, to the questions!
Q1: How do I strengthen my writing style?
A: Fluency.
If you want a good writing style, it really doesn't matter how exactly you choose to shape your words. What matters is how fluent you are. You don't want to be jumping from... donuts to chains and whips... with no bridge in between them.
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See this? This is what you don't want.
So, for example:
Hi, my name is Lulu Lime. I love donuts. My mum chained me to an electric fence when I was a kid.
That's giving me whiplash. You need something to bridge those two very distinct concepts.
I don't know how I'm going to do this myself, actually. Um.
I love donuts. There's something about the softness of them -- the dough always just crumbles when it lands in my mouth, and even though the icing is hard and cold, it tastes like sugar and bubbles and joy.
It was the only sweet thing I was allowed to eat when I was a kid. Once a month, my mother would bring some down for me, to congratulate me for being so patient and quiet while she shackled my wrists and chained me up to that small, silver fence that sat in my room.
Look, it's not perfect, but it shows more cohesion than the first example. There's sort of a bridge? It's "donuts" to "being chained to electric fences" -- give me a break.
Yes, I am very aware that I came up with that idea myself.
I make such poor decisions.
A: Clarity.
I have multiple answers for the same question!
Clarity is also super important. If your reader can't understand your writing style, we've got problems. So, this includes:
- Vocabulary that makes sense. I don't need to see, I had adorned consciousness which I had gained at the slightest perusal of my alarm clock. As someone who knows what all those words mean, I still have no idea what you mean. Just... tell us that she woke up to her alarm! It's not that hard!
- Punctuation and Dialogue. Yes. It needs to be as impeccable as possible. It's the best way to ensure clarity.
