Substance and Progress

I really think about what kind of writer I am. As far as writing style goes, I like to be more descriptive with my writing and try to abide by the idea of “show not tell.” I hardly use simple sentences and prefer to write compound, complex or compound-complex sentences in my stories. I am very wary of using ‘is,’ ‘are,’ ‘was’ and ‘were’ in my sentences as well as that tends to tell the audience something instead of showing. All this was something that I learned to do over time with hours upon hours of editing.

My issue then is whether I am too rigid with my writing. I cannot say that my writing is highly stylized, preferring to write well-constructed sentences instead of writing with “pizazz.” I think that I limit myself that way but hope to bridge that gap over time. I am not trying to re-invent the wheel with my stories but just want to write the stories that are fun for me. I have always felt that execution is more important than originality, as every idea under the sun has already been done at some point in time. I have no real desire to write for the sake of being “different.”

With that, I think that it is safe to say that I am a substance over style type of writer. I do not think that I have found a good balance yet with having a particular style that works in conjunction with the substance. I think that I will get there though with more practice and just getting out of my comfort zone with how I am writing.