Some day in the very distant future I would like to try my hand at writing a book. I was considering two different styles of writing. Let me know which you prefer.
Style 1:
Dust awoke to his alarm. Was it 7:40 already? Had he hit his snooze button that many times? He silently chided himself on his irresponsibility as he quickly prepared for work.Style 2:
Beep, Beep! Beep, Beep!
"Won't that stupid alarm clock shut up!" Dust moaned in disgust as he slapped the snooze button again. He did not even bother to open his eyes to check the dimly lit numbers on the clock. It was too difficult to see them against the sun rays that shot through the venetian blinds and reflected against the clock's shiny plastic surface.
Dust stretched and rolled over to Mrs Dust's side of the bed. She had already awaken and he could tell from the sound of the hair dryer in the next room that she was busy getting ready for the day.
It was only at this moment that he glanced at his wife's clock. 7:41! His stomach sank and a slight pain shot through his arms as adrenalin began to flow. How was that possible? He did not remember hitting the snooze button on his alarm that many times, but here was all the evidence he needed.
As Dust threw the blankets aside he stood up and began forward. At that moment he found the shoe he had carelessly thrown off the previous evening with his foot and tripped into the bedroom wall. "That figures," Dust thought, "if one thing goes wrong everything else might as well."
As he prepared for work all Dust could do was continually lie to himself, "I'll never do this again. I won't make this mistake more than once." This scene was an unfortunately common one for Dust.
8 comments:
We can not answer that for you. You should decide for yourself which style you prefer and what was more fun to write. Go with what feels right for you and develop that as your personal style.
The first is more formal and the second is not. So the story itself sometimes dictates that. Also dialogue and short paragaraphs make a scene go faster for a reader, so your second one moves quickly. It's show don't tell. In writing they always say that. Don't tell me "the alarm went off." Show me the alarm going. the second one meets that criteria. Happy writing!
Yes, what she said. ^
I am so glad that I am not the only one with those kinds of mornings...LOL!
Obviously, you wrote more in the second style, so it seems you are more comfortable and your writing flowed easily.
Looking forward to reading the next segment! (I do like the journal entry style if that was in question)
I was able to get a better visual on the second entry. My vote is for that style!
I think you have a concensus that style 2 is good for you. ***in our humble opinions! LOL*** While I like things that are simple I would say that you could get more mileage in a book with style two (as Jadee pointed out) since you seem to be more versed in that style. :)
For what it's worth, I prefer style 1. Style 2 seems to be the kind of gee-I-need-to-start-developing-my-character introductions that frequent too many of today's novels.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having detail; but I would prefer the detail be fleshed out in the characters environment rather than vingettes about the beeping of an alarm clock.
Dash, I am actually quite surprised. I would have thought you would have advocated developing characters as soon as possible. I hadn't thought about timing on character development, for what it's worth.
Post a Comment