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I spent all of last weekend with my Aunt Lisa in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She’s authored over 20 religious books, scribed numerous articles and blog posts, but is just about to self-publish her first novel.
We talked about a lot of things. Amongst them, writing styles. She has a very purposeful, down-to-the-point style. I’m different, with metaphors and music. She asked me what I thought made a good writer. My answer? Detail. So then I began wondering what people have to say about their writing and how it shapes them. I asked two people (person A and person B) a series of questions, which I myself answered below. Many thanks to the wonderful Nikki and Bella who cooperated and satisfied my curiousity! You both rock.
Want to answer these questions? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment! How does your writing style define you?
How would you describe your writing style?
Me: As a learner and beginner, it’s a work in progress. When I write, I’m more of a natural poet than a prose writer. I think in poetry, lyric, metaphor. I want to write so when you read, it’s like watching a musical. I want the reader to be able to read it like music. Right now, however, I’m a quarter teenage-angst, half-romantic, quarter drama, with a sea-full of excruciating detail.
A: [It's] having no boundaries. It’s a lot of metaphor, a lot of feeling, and it’s always a lot closer to poetry than prose. I love the small details. I want reading my stuff to be like watching TV in your head.
B: Overly descriptive at times…under descriptive at others…a bit stereotypical…very typical of teenage years.
What makes a good author/writer?
Me: Detail. Lots and lot of excruciating detail, the passion and neuroses to work with that detail and the world around it. Painstaking criticism of every single word until you have a (nearly) flawless masterpiece. It’s not being afraid to swallow scorpions to better your story.
A: Passion, knowledge of ones audience, and the world in general, and the ability to be generally fearless in what they write. You can’t be afraid that what you have to say is going to strike nerves. You gotta know what’s on your heart and write it regardless. It’s the authors who take risks that come out on top. If no never step out of your comfort zone you’ll never know what you can accomplish.
B: Story-telling abilities accented by actually talented writing….or more, accented by an actual talent for writing.
What makes you (in general, people, etc.) a writer?
Me: One who loves words more than anything else, who can know and love them like a first-born child. I am a writer because it is who I am.
A: I guess I just have a lot to see, that can’t be expressed otherwise. It’s always something that comes easily to me. I think in metaphors. I’m willing to fight for it too, and that’s the most important thing. I want to keep going, I want to grow, and I’m not scared of what I’ve got to say.
B: Anyone who puts pen to paper or fingers to keyboard/typewriter or somehow sets unspoken thoughts to paper or internet. Anyone with idea that they cannot keep within.
Why do you write?
Me: Someone once said that if you slit my arm, I’d bleed ink. While this may not be true, I write because I have to. I know I can. There are things that must be said, must be written, and it’s up to me to do it. I cannot live without writing. It’s a necessity. I have to many ideas not to write. It’s the only thing I know.
A: Because I have too to live. I love it. It’s necessary.
B: Because there is nothing else for me to do and because some ideas must be expelled.
I’ve concluded, as so many before me have, that writing is a necessity. It’s worse than crack – once you start, you can’t go back. It’s what we need to live and what sets us apart from everyone else.
Tuesday I could be found reading the wonderful website MuggleNet, as I so often do. Apparently, “Oscar producers asked JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer to present together at this year’s ceremony.” (Article Link Here!) 
Forget for a moment that it would be an insult to Jo Rowling to even be asked to co-present with Stephenie Meyer. Stephenie Meyer should not even be asked to preside at awards. Obviously, the Oscar producers were desperate for some media attention from the younger generation. Both declined – Meyer because she’s Mormon and doesn’t work on Sundays — Rowling because she has scheduling conflicts. Now, I know Meyer is definitely Mormon and Rowling probably insanely busy, but I also think there’s the small factor that the two of them really don’t want to meet.
Think of it. J.K. Rowling is a top of the line author who writes for all ages, genders, every demographic, whereas Stephenie Meyer…well, she admits she writes for 12-year-old girls. Rowling writes with excruciating detail and original characters that are deep on so many multiple levels – they’re almost realistic. She created a world so phenomenal, there are over 150 characters equaling in level depth. And then you have Meyer, with Mary-Sue protagonist Bella Swan, a sparkling boyfriend, and cliché, guessable plots – this writer seems to write only for her fans. (The 12-year-old girls).
J.K. Rowling is no fool. She knows it would be bad if she decapitated Stephenie Meyer (how much everyone may want her to do so). She also knows that meeting Meyer would result in a showdown so epic, it would be like no other Author Battle before.
Meyer: “….Edward, sparklingfancysuperhot vampire…”
Rowling: “Real vampires don’t shine.”
Meyer: “Mine do – they’re perfect” -swoons-
Rowling (in her fancy British accent): “Oh, please. My Cedric Diggory teenage wizard could beat your hundred year old Edward in a heartbeat – and he got killed in book 4!”
Meyer: “You kill your characters! I don’t have the gall to do that to them.”
Rowling: “So you settle for a book that anticipates a huge battle and results in a little handshake in the end. Really realistic.”
…and on and on. It is quite obvious that Jo Rowling would win the Battle of the Writers – she thinks things out a hundred times better than Meyer does. Quite frankly, it’s insulting that Stephenie Meyer should be considered next to Jo Rowling.
So tell me: What’s your opinion of a Jo Rowling – Stephenie Meyer showdown? Who would win? What’s your opinion of the two meeting?
Yup. That’s me. Bad Girl, Bad Blogger, Bad Writer.
I haven’t written in a month…maybe a month and a half. That’s right, folks. A month and a half of no writing. How, you may ask, can an aspiring writer not write for a month and a half and still survive? I don’t know. I barely survived. True, I had Mock Trial Competitions (my school made it to second round Regionals!) and it was the end of the trimester at school, but I don’t know why I stopped. It’s not even writer’s block, like this adorable little kitty. I can write 50k in a month. However, I just stopped. Like that. Stopped. Don’t know why. No reason. 
Shocking. I know. I’m shocked too. When I write, it’s because I need to. If I don’t – especially for prolonged periods of time, I choke up, I become shaky and stressed. I lose sleep, constantly want to curl up in a ball and vomit until there’s nothing left in my stomach, claw my eyes out with forks…you get the idea.
I made a New Year’s Resolution to write more. Write and write and write and write and write. The past month and a half has been an EPIC FAIL at that. I don’t know why I don’t write. I need to, just like I need oxygen to breath, but I don’t. I promise to fix that.
I made a promise TO THIS KITTY. To fix it. To write. I shall.
And then yesterday, I wrote. I finally sat down with blank sheets of paper and just wrote. I think I shook with the brilliance of it. It was like wanting a big bucket of ice cream for months and months and months and then you finally have it and you can’t eat if fast enough, because you’ve missed it so much. Yeah, that’s how writing was.
I didn’t write anything good. I didn’t write anything special. I just wrote. Because, as all you writers out there know, we need writing to live. It’s as simple as that. And in that fact, in that imperfection, the words are beautiful. Then so, too, is the writer.
