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Hello. Callistonian.net is my stomping ground on the Internet. Here, I post a potpourri of things - this place is a little random. I'm Chantelle: a 23 year old foreign language, law, and history obsessed girl.

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19
09.07

Kvetching: I hate my writing style.

I hate my writing style. It’s not pretty; it’s too colloquial. I hate it. The question, of course, is: how do I change? I’m begging you for help and advice.

I want to write well.

I’m tired of boring sentences and awkward paragraphs—why don’t my words flow? I’m a Pisces. I should be eloquent.

Some of you may believe that my writing style is fine and that this rant is irrational if not retarded. I don’t wish to play the perfectionist card but, to you, I say: I want to write better; there are millions who write better than me; do you understand how frustrating not being able to put simple things into words is?

I read grammar books for fun. I’m subscribed to language blogs and word of the day sites. I have a word journal. I’m studying three foreign languages. I aspire to be something of a lawyer- can’t I be a bit obsessive about this? Shouldn’t I write well?

Help?

FYI, I’m ranting because I’m desperately trying to review Brooks’ March but, it’s killing me. I can’t put a decent sentence together.

» Categories: Words & Writing

19 Comments to “Kvetching: I hate my writing style.”

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I’m a very bad writer too. But I believe, best writing come from intense pressure. That is, I always write better in exams than usual. :P

So give yourself constant pressure.

Posted by: Rilla · September 19th, 2007 at 9:45 pm · #

I always wish I could write perfectly (or at least a bit better!) too :/

I really don’t have any tips, but maybe you should try NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/).

Posted by: Kaylee · September 19th, 2007 at 9:52 pm · #

@Rilla: Thanks for the suggestion but writing under intense pressure is not good for me - it will only make me die early. :( In uni., every time I wrote a 15 or 20 page essay within a day or two of when it was due, I felt like I lost a year of my life (due to the insane amount of stress that I was under) and I know that my writing would have better and more eloquent if I had more time to think over the way that I phrased and structured things.

@Kaylee: NaNoWriMo is great but, I can’t do it because I don’t have the time! 50k in a month is way too much. I’d just write crap.

Posted by: Chantelle · September 19th, 2007 at 10:36 pm · #

Writing crap is sort of the point of Nanowrimo. :)

But really, I’d say that the best way to smooth out your style and get more comfortable with your words is to write. I know that sounds kind of trite, but it’s just like the only way to learn how to skate well is by skating.

Posted by: Jack · September 19th, 2007 at 10:43 pm · #

Well, for me, I find that I write way better with topics that interest me, and that I know will interest someone else. When I’m writing about my day-to-day things, my paragraphs are more awkward, unless something pretty cool happened. Otherwise, I try to find an interesting, random topic to just write about. If I get really into it and focus, my writing is a lot better! So, try this: find topics you enjoy and assign yourself essays. Maybe just work on them a little bit every few days. You can write your own bit, do some research, and ask people what they think. This helps you think of things from different perspectives, which helps make your writing feel multi-demensional.

Posted by: Aisling · September 19th, 2007 at 11:29 pm · #

I think I write quite poorly too… I keep seeing articles and blogs written in a witty yet punchy and eloquent manner and I get so envious that I can’t do it.

I guess it is just practice makes perfect. It also helps if you have time to revise what you say; don’t be afraid to delete huge chunks of text if you can think of a more succinct way of phrasing. The biggest factor I think in being eloquent is if you write about something that matters to you. I find I write a lot better on topics I care about or have been thinking about a lot lately.

Posted by: Belinda · September 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am · #

If you’re referring to your writing style in terms of your blog and site…don’t chuck in a multitude of polysyllabic words. It just makes the person sound like a right git.

If it’s simply in terms of creative and academic writing, go by what Jack said. Simply WRITE MORE.

Posted by: Amanda · September 20th, 2007 at 3:29 am · #

@Everyone: TY ♥

@Amanda: I’m talking about my blog. It’s corrupting the rest of my writing. I hate it. I’ll try to avoid sounding like a right git but I can’t bear writing for 2nd graders anymore… It’s killing me. It’s not natural and it’s just not how I want to write.

Posted by: Chantelle · September 20th, 2007 at 3:54 am · #

I find my writing style changed radically after I started reading Terry Prattchett…so er… go read interesting books. I also tend to day dream a lot (i.e. plan what I will write while doing something completely different), so dunno that might also help :P But it also causes terminal scatterbrained-ness :P

The only solution is to read more.

Posted by: Vera · September 20th, 2007 at 6:43 am · #

Delve into others’ writing that you admire. The more I read an author, the more my writing tends to sound like theirs.

Also, if you are very serious about changing your style, pretend everything needs drafts. Get a buddy, an editor, a beta. Do as you would for a story or a poem.

Other bits: adverbs are awful. Bigger words are nice, but only when mixed in with normal words. And finally, say what you mean, in any words that come, and then go back and edit out the parts that sound out of place.

Good luck writing that review. I want to read it.

Posted by: Caitlin · September 20th, 2007 at 9:52 am · #

@Vera/@Caitlin: Thank you. Reading well-written works has always helped me. But I’m really bad about adverbs (see?).

@Caitlin: Just read the book… :P

Posted by: Chantelle · September 20th, 2007 at 10:05 am · #

I have the same problem, I want to be one of those wordinistas that’s got words flowing from left to right… but my blog writing, especially, is colloquial as well.

Most of the time I’m struggling to find that perfect word, it never comes to me and instead I use a boring and generic one.

I don’t know what to do, but maybe you should write about less-colloquial things? Of course I state the obvious.

Try immersing yourself into different genres of novels. I’d go with Victorian literature. Anything remotely British makes me feel more eloquent! Or write about something you know a lot about.

Posted by: Rafia · September 20th, 2007 at 7:59 pm · #

*late*

I am definitely not the greatest writer in the world; I kind of rely on my boyfriend as a crutch for witticisms to appear in our blog.

I think if you want to sound less colloquial, simply try writing about less colloquial things. But BE CAREFUL. The problem with my old site (one of many, anyway) was that it was too, uh, hoity-toity? People like something they can relate to, and that’s fine.

Best of luck trying to find that middle ground, though - god knows I haven’t yet.

Posted by: Leila · September 21st, 2007 at 4:32 pm · #

What’s wrong with your writing style? Um, what’s wrong with being colloquial? I think you write very well but if you want to change style, what made you write the way you do now? Do you also speak that way? If it’s that, I think it would be really hard to change without feeling like you’re our of your skin. If your writing style has been more influenced by what you are used to reading, maybe reading authors with different styles would help? I noticed that when I write (formally) I adopt a mix of styles of the authors I read. So maybe that helps?

I also think it’s hard to write well (or do anything well) when you are pressured to do so =P

Good luck with that!

Posted by: Lene · September 21st, 2007 at 10:50 pm · #

@Lene: There’s nothing wrong with being colloquial. In truth, I don’t have a serious problem with the amount of colloquialisms that I use. I have problems with my writing’s lack of eloquence.

I also have problems with my descriptions. They’re rarely on point. I want to be precise but I don’t know how because I don’t have the words or because I don’t know how to phrase things or something…

For example, at this very moment, I’m having trouble describing a thing’s goodness. I could say that it’s “really good” but a lot of things are “really good” so that’s not quite it - it’s much better than really good. I could say that it’s amazing/ brilliant /wonderful/ splendid but those don’t work either because they’re overused so…I’m just stuck.

Thanks so much for the advice and for wishing me good luck! ♥

Posted by: Chantelle · September 21st, 2007 at 11:51 pm · #

You should be in my English class then… my current teacher is a classic terror teacher! But I have to say, he’s helping us write a whole lot better!

All I can say is, and this is what I’ve learned so far: eloquence doesn’t always work. :/

Posted by: Aravis · September 22nd, 2007 at 3:34 am · #

Typical unoriginal comment (but true): I like your writing style.

I understand where you’re coming from though as I often think the same way, especially when I’ve just had a successful few days of writing where I’ve been able to complete lots of articles etc because it’s easy to re-use the same wording. My biggest problem is being too “proper” and then overly colloquial in the same paragraph.

As you’re into languages, make use of them as much as possible. I’m always having to add acronyms to my coding but it keeps it “me” and more original.

Posted by: Charlie · September 24th, 2007 at 6:09 pm · #

I can 100% relate to this post. I don’t like my writing style either. I read blogs such as Becky’s (babblative.com) and Laur’s (looking-in.net) and think to myself, “Why can’t I write like them?”

Posted by: Britney · September 25th, 2007 at 12:44 pm · #

Raisa, I don’t want to be terrorized. That’s too scary. I hate teachers like that.

Charlie, I love your suggestion of using foreign phrases.

Britney, we’re quite similar. But I look at some and I wonder if I dare aspire to write as they do. Instead of thinking, “Why can’t I write like them” - I think, “Is it possible for me to write like them?”

Posted by: Chantelle · September 25th, 2007 at 10:30 pm · #

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