Compensating for a changing writing style throughout a single story

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been doing some creative writing lately. Nothing publish-able, just for fun, so the stakes are nonexistent. But as the story gets longer, I’ve noticed a pretty distinct difference in my writing style between the beginning and the end. Like in the beginning my sentences were shorter, more descriptive, less… adjectivey, for lack of a better word. I’m wondering how skilled writers compensate for this. Is this something that the editing process is intended to smooth over? Or is it something that will go away as I develop a consistent writing style over time?

There’s *supposed *to be a change in tone, so that’s not the problem (resolution, angst reduction, all that jazz). And of course it’s expected (I think?) for snappy dialogue-heavy scenes to have a faster, wittier “feel” than sections with heavy inner monologue. But this is different.

I’m guessing this is not abnormal, but I just have nobody off whom to bounce the question. Didn’t have a lot of luck trying to Google this, either. Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

2

Maybe you are finding “your voice”. I kind of noticed the same thing as I wrote more. Flexing those muscles so to speak, as you settle into your style. Just my two cents.

3

Honestly, what it probably means is that at some point, you’re just going to throw this draft away. If you aren’t writing in a consistent style, it means you haven’t yet matured as a writer. You’re going to have to keep writing until it happens. I have never heard of a writer “compensating” for this.

Writers write many hundreds of thousands of words for many years before they get anything usable. Most old drafts are just junked. Sometimes you can come back to an old story and start it over from scratch, but the odds are by that time, you will have other things you want to write about.

4

Not editing but rewriting.

Rewriting is done differently by every writer. Some toss old drafts and start over. Some go through a draft line-by-line, paragraph-by-paragraph and rework sentences until satisfied. Some use the “perfect page,” not going forward until they have crafted a page to perfection. Some put the work aside for a day or week or month until they can read it with fresh eyes and decide what needs to be fixed.

Every story starts with a blank page. That’s more than a truism, it’s the writer’s nightmare. Even experienced writers are faced with the reality that what worked in the past may not work today for this particular piece with this particular tone and characters and setting and meaning. So after they write, they rewrite. And rewrite some more.

If you’re writing for fun, you may not want to go through this. Start something new and have fun there in that case. You do learn a lot while rewriting though and you get the satisfaction of seeing the work improve. A good paragraph is a thing of beauty. [This paragraph is not beautiful. It needs work. But sometimes they go out the door irregardless. :slight_smile: ]

5

I’ll endorse re-writing as a cure. While it is true that not all first drafts are crap, it is hugely liberating to realize that first drafts can be crap, and that doesn’t matter. Re-writing is much, much easier the writing, and you can almost always fix problems like this with a toothbrush, rather than with a cold chisel.

It sounds like you have a firm grasp of the theory. Action sequences are quicker, with shorter sentences and shorter words, than are descriptive passages. The choice of style is one of the many variables you get to use to create richness and tone.

So, heck with it, just write! Say what you have to say, and fix it all up later.

6

I’ve published a few short stories, and had a play produced by a local company (not anything I got any compensation for, it was all amateur, but mine did get chosen from a number of entries).

Anyway, when I rewrite, I move large parts of the text around. Sometimes the ending ends up being the second paragraph. When you make changes like that, then go back and edit, inconsistencies get juxtaposed, and you can edit them out more easily.

Also, I just write my first draft straight up, for fluency. I don’t do a lot of second guessing when I’m writing. Then I use the search feature, and look for “-ly” words to try to find places where I’ve used adverbs, and try to get rid of them. I try to get rid of each “very” as well, using the search feature. And I search for the word “was” to make sure that every time I use the “was verbing” structure, it’s absolutely necessary. If it can be replaced with “verbed” I replace it.

When I read to edit, one thing I look for with fervor is mixed metaphors. They usually aren’t obvious. They happen because we use connotative forms of words so commonly, that we forget they have a literal meaning, and then occasionally we use two words next to each other which, if you consider the literal meanings, constitute a mixed metaphor. I didn’t write this one, but I saw it on a book cover: two characters were going to “rekindle ebbing passions.” “Rekindle” and “ebbing” both get used connotatively so much that I’ve sure they didn’t strike the copy writer as a mixed metaphor, but it made me laugh.

The people who say that practice will bring consistency are right, but rewriting and editing something is practice too. I worked harder on the crappy stories I wrote in high school than on anything I actually got published as an adult, but that sweating over single word choices in that adolescent muck was an excellent education.

7

My preference is to revise. And revise. And revise some more. And then when I feel fairly satisfied with a draft, I put it away for a couple of weeks. After rereading the piece with fresher eyes, I invariably revise some more.

I try not to become too attached to particular turns of phrase, paragraphs, even whole scenes. I recently wrote a long scene that I was initially quite happy with. But after further thought, I decided it really didn’t suit the larger piece for a variety of reasons, so I cut it completely. Writing that scene may seem like wasted effort but it helped me understand where I wanted to take the characters, how I wanted them to develop, etc. So even the bits that end up on the cutting room floor can be extremely useful IME.

8

If it sounds like a different person wrote it, it’s because a different person did write it.

I noticed in re-reading some of my early writing that I sort of picked up the style of whoever I was reading at the time. Like, “Oh, I guess I wrote this during my Tom Robbins phase,” or whatever.

After a couple million words, that doesn’t really happen anymore. Now I just sound like me, for better or for worse, usually worse. Once I get to the end, I usually throw out and rewrite the beginning.

I have to say, though. One of the hardest things in my life was going out to promote my first book, which of course when I wrote it–and sold it–I thought it was the greatest thing going. But by the time I read the page proofs I was like “Sheesh, what moron actually paid me for this?” By that time I was well on the second book of my contract which was sooooo much better. Like, I should have thrown the first one away instead of sending it off. And of course it was at that point that I had to go out and read from the first book and talk about how great it was. What I wanted to say was, “Don’t read this book, wait for my next one!” Couldn’t say that. Painful.

Then the same thing happened with the second book, while I was working on the third. A pattern emerges. Once it’s been published I don’t even want to open my books. I don’t want to read one sentence. Particularly aloud, in front of people who are in theory looking to buy it. There will be something awful in there. That I wrote.

And now I understand all those reclusive writers.

Anyway, once you think something’s finished, read it out loud. I have found it very helpful to read it into a tape recorder, as this keeps me from just mindlessly droning on without listening to what I’m reading. Or read it to a dog or cat. Then, play the tape back. For some reason, for me, this really helps.

9

Revising. You’ll smooth it out in revisions.

Having said that, Hilarity N. Suze is correct that you’ll thank yourself later for giving it a good long time to sit before you revise, so that when you do it, you know what you’re doing.

10

Very helpful and some great suggestions. I’ve been giving every section two passes as I write it, and intend to give the early bits at least one full rewrite before I’m done.

11

At a Con some years ago, local writer John Vornholt said it took him about a million words for him to find his voice.

12

Ray Bradbury famously said the first million words anyone writes are garbage.

(I vigorously disagree! I sold my very first story… Yes, it had some problems, and yes, if I were to write it today, it’d be quite a bit better… But it wasn’t “garbage,” just…roughish.)

It may have taken Vornholt a million words to find his voice…but that certainly isn’t true of everyone. (Heck, I found, and lost, and found, and lost again, and found again, different “voices” over time. Right now, I have about five of 'em I can select among!)

13

There have been plenty of writers with more than one voice-- sometimes they used pseudonyms for the different voices-- but Elizabeth MacIntosh was Josephine Tey when she wrote mysteries, and Gordon Daviot when she wrote historical and biblical dramas. Charles Dodgson wrote mathematical treatises under his own name, and fantasy fiction under the name Lewis Carroll.