STYLE

Why did I place Style last? It is the last part to master, and the most difficult to describe. Short form, foxes and hounds – it was the hardest to articulate.

I fought for weeks – months, in fact – trying to get myself in a position to talk about Style. It’s a writer’s watermark on every page, that “thing” that differentiates one writer from all others. It’s much more than prose, more complex than mere diction. It’s the soul of any masterwork. It is the detail of a Michelangelo, the surreal vision of Dali, the unique vocals of Louis Armstrong, the fancy footwork of James Brown, the childlike simplicity of Einstein – every master of every craft has this quality of Style.

But you don’t care a hoot about all that. You care about what it is and how you can get it.

You get it by writing. I don’t know what it is. It’s something inside of you that you have to find on your own. I can take you but so far on your journey – “Let conscience be now thy guide, forth of the steep, forth of the narrow ways…”

You have indeed, as Dante’s Virgil once said, “come to a point from which no further can I discern.” All I can do is make you write, keeping in mind that your voice is there in your writing somewhere and that, if you write enough, just enough times, you’ll hear it.

The Style Lexicon will help you to find the words with which to speak. They will be your words, chosen by you, to be used by you whenever necessary. It will be your personal dictionary and thesaurus, with you as the author.

The Style Workshop will help you to experiment with your voice, like practicing your signature. You will be urged to re-write scenes with variations of perspective, tone and mood. You will be able to see the crap you’re about to delete right next to the masterpiece you’ve created from its cold, dead carcass. If that’s not motivation, tell me what is!

 

Introduction

Style Lexicon

Style Workshop

Articles

 

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