Creative Writing 101

Lesson 7: Basic Style.

Simple Style and Readability.

SIMPLE STYLE.

A simple style is almost always a good one. It has no frills and no fanfares, but flows along like a country road. It makes no particular demands on the readers, and it never intrudes on the story.

Simple style is one of the most difficult to master.

The elements of a simple style include -

- correct grammar that is never stilted.

- pleasant sound that is not consciously poetic.

- rhythm that makes it easy to read aloud, but which is not sing-song.

- use of contractions whenever necessary, but not whenever possible.

- use of the simplest available word having the precise required meaning.

A simple style is accessible to any fluent reader, and will probably use no words that a ten-year-old would not understand. The sentences will not all be simple sentences.

SIMPLE SENTENCES.

A simple sentence in this case is a sentence without conjunctions.

"The cat sat on the mat." This is a simple sentence.

"The cat sat on the mat and the dog sat on the chair." This is not a simple sentence.

If a whole chapter were to be written using simple sentences (in the sense of sentences without conjunctions), the effect would be wooden and banal rather than simple (in the sense of clean, clear, fluent, lucid...).

RECOGNISING SIMPLE STYLE.

I would love to say you will recognise simple style when you meet it, but the truth is that you may not. Only in retrospect will you realise that you have read and enjoyed a chapter without ever consciously noticing the style.

Look at the following examples.

(1) "Alexia's hair shone like toffee in the sun."

(2) "Alexia's hair was shiny."

(3) "Alexia's gleaming tresses glittered with the sleekness of sunlit toffee."

(4) "The glitter of sunlit toffee rose in spirit from the wonder of Alexia's hair."

(5) "Alexia's hair shone."

All five examples give the same information, but which one is written in simple style?

You probably find (3) and (4) overwrought and trying too hard for effect. They may conjure up a picture, but they are not simple. (2) is not trying too hard, but it sounds a bit clunky. It really has no style. (1) and (5) are the closest to simple style, and a choice would depend on the rest of the passage and whether or not it contained any other images.

Music is what comes to my mind when trying to describe simple style. I love listening to music, but while some favourite pieces demand concentration and take my attention to the point where I can think of nothing else, others flow by so unobtrusively that I am scarcely aware of them until the speakers fall silent.

Not everyone uses or wants to use simple style. For some readers, and for some writers, style is, and should be, a visible part of the narrative. If you're fascinated by words, and love to create ornate verbal pictures, then you may prefer to use a more obtrusive style.

Do you prefer the verb "to coruscate" to the verb "to shine"? Do you prefer passages with lots of commas, colons, dashes and the occasional parentheses to a simple comma and full stop job? Do your trees "sway in the wind" or do they "whirl in a mad, witch-like dance, tossing their verdant tresses to the orchestration of the gale"?

Enough said?

CONVERSATIONAL STYLE.

Conversational style is used a lot in books for children. It is often couched in first person, but can also be third person narrative. It is usually grammatical, but very unselfconscious.

"It was a fine day, the sort of day when most people like to go to the beach. Pete and his little sister Corinna were out in the garden. They were playing on the swing, and keeping an eye out just in case a dog passed by."

Phrases such as "the sort of day", "out in the garden", "keeping an eye out" and "just in case" are all hallmarks of conversational style. It's easy, friendly, and not at all pretentious.

How does this kind of style differ from the simple style discussed above? Precisely because it uses ready-made phrases. These are easy to write and easy to read, because they are ready-made. The simplicity of conversational style is the simplicity of a chain store shirt, whereas the simplicity of simple style is more like the proverbial little black dress.

Conversational style is a favourite with the kinds of readers who just want to get on with the story. It's ideally suited to family stories and pleasant adventures. It doesn't please readers of literary fiction so much, nor is it suited to thrillers or fantasy or other books that depend on strong atmosphere.

READABILITY.

Something simple and conversational style have in common is readability. They say what they mean, directly, so readers don't need to stop and re-read or concentrate to work out what's happening. Readability is a useful attribute to have, so even if your natural and preferred style is elaborate, it's a good thing to make sure you are saying what you mean.