Skip to main content

Guest Post Wed: Tips For Finding Your Own Writing Style

Be Yourself: Tips For Finding Your Own Writing Style

As a writer, you have to have some sort of individuality in order to stand out from the crowd. If you look at all of the successful authors, you'll notice they all have their own distinctive writing style. Here are a few tips to help you find your own writing style.

Keep a journal and an ideas book.
Keeping a journal will allow you to write every day and give you a place to express yourself. Writing in a journal every day will help you find your own style as a result. You can use a number of techniques (stream of consciousness, question and answer, periodic reflection), in order to find the writing style that is perfect for you. In contrast, you can write down all ideas you have in your ideas book. If you take it with you wherever you go, you will soon fill it up. So whenever you need something good to write for an employer, you will have a ready bank of ideas there to tap into!

Experiment every chance you get.
Experiment with your writing style on a regular basis. Try abstract writing, short sentences, long and descriptive sentences, and anything else you may want to try. It is all good practice!

Look for ideas wherever you go.
There are ideas to be had anywhere and everywhere. Looking for ideas will help you to refine your style because every idea you have will provoke passion and interest, the two things you need in order to succeed. They will also help you to find who you are as a writer!

Talk to other writers.
Other writers have been there and done it so ask them questions about how they found their writing style, the exercises they did and what they do now to constantly improve. They will often be happy to help. Go to book signings and talks to hear what they have to say and chat to them! Get online and find message boards and online forums where writers are.

Enjoy writing.
You need passion and interest to find your writing style. As a result, you have to enjoy writing to make the most of it! The day you start disliking writing is the day to get out of the business.

Copyright © Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ



Download an excerpt of The Authentic Self: Journaling Your Joys, Griefs and Everything in Between below:

authenticself-sampler.zip OR authenticself-sampler.pdf
If you want 3 writing *sparks* delivered to you every day for 31 days, check out WriteSparks!™ Daily HERE for info on how to get started -- it's free :o) Thank you for reading. Keep writing!

Popular posts from this blog

Interview Friday with J.D. Holiday

J.D. Holiday is the author and illustrator of two children’s books: Janoose the Goose, picture book and a chapter book for six to eight year olds, THE GREAT SNOWBALL ESCAPADE. A chapbook of her short stories called, Trespasses was published in 1994 and she has had short stories printed in literary magazines and numerous articles about writing and publishing published.  She is a member of both The Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators, (SCBWI) and Small Publishers of North America, (SPAN.)  J.D. Holiday lives in the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania. VS : I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today. It is so exciting because you are my first World of Ink Tour Guest. It’s been a fun couple of days and the tour is only getting started. Okay, so I know your children are grown and out of the house, but I’m sure you’ve had to balance your writing life around them at one time or another. I know being a parent and writer can be hard and I find ...

I'm a Guest Blogger on The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Picking the Right Words for a Picture Book by VS Grenier First, let me say there are four types of picture books. Story Books: Most of us grew up on this traditional picture book. This type of picture book is by far the most popular and is usually fiction based. You will have a series of events with strong character development. Story books tend to have more text on each page vs. other types of picture books. Concept Books: This type of picture book helps to promote a child’s understanding. You see this type of picture book for toddlers or as a “My First” book series. These books can be fiction or nonfiction and have very few words. The illustrations tend to be the focus. Novelty Books: A great example of this type of book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This picture book relies on some short of gimmick to tell the book’s story. Modern Picture Books: This type of picture book is a lot like the story picture book, but uses both the illustrations and ...

Guest Post by Author Mary Cunningham

  Cynthia's Attic - Inspiring Young Readers and Writers Writers love to write. It's a passion. But, I discovered another benefit writing for children that I didn’t anticipate. Who knew how much fun I’d have visiting schools and interacting with my target audience? I’ve created several slide presentations that are informative and fun, but the question/answer session is most entertaining. For instance, I'm amazed at the number of elementary and middle-school students who not only love to read, but want to know what it takes to become a published author.  Questions like, “How did you find your publisher?” or, “Who edits your books?” One of the most asked questions is, “Who did your cover?” I love sharing information about one of the best graphic artists in the business, Nathalie Moore. Although the artist and the publisher have the final say, my ideas are always considered.  Naturally, the inevitable questions come up; “How much money do you make?” (Don’t quit your day jo...