Yesterday night, after a workshop of one short story I wrote, a backpack full of peer reviews lay on my bedroom floor. I hesitated before flipping the twenty-five returned copies of my work. I awaited the comments of my classmates with dread. In the last few weeks, I sweated on my story; I cried for my characters; in short, I cared for my work that was not only an assignment for my advanced fiction class, but it challenged also my ability to write clearly and concisely in English.
Of course, I wanted to read my classmates’ comments; of course, I wanted to consider their suggestions of how to better my writing and my work. I took a deep breath. I opened the pack, and I found that many peers encouraged me; other appreciated my work; some did not “quite get what I was trying to say.” Sometimes, the components of my sentences were misplaced, they said. I really enjoyed looking into these possible issues. I stayed up late. I tried to understand what my peers meant by saying that they did not get the sense of what I wrote. After I scanned through my lines for hours, the only plausible outcome was that some of my classmates confused style with what they thought was a “sentence-structure-issue.”
That is because, most of the time, readers do not understand what style is.
Style is about sensitivity for a language and its written speech. Style is what fits the thoughts of an author and how such ideas are displayed on and within a document. Style is what distinguishes a writer from another; what makes a reading crispier than another that might be flat and empty.
Style is a destination a writer may reach after a continuous process of digestion of a language, its grammatical rules, and its mechanic. Style is like a rose: each petal is a functional layer of the crown.
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2 comments:
Anna, I was one of those people who was not getting what you were saying, but after going home and thinking about my comments I put on your short story and reading this post, I realized everyone's writing is not the same. People have different styles. You have a uniques style and you're able to see a story from a different point of view.
Style is about the author and I failed to realized that. So from me, I apoligize for not considering your style of writing because I wanted every style to blend together. Thank you for helping me realize and I know I will take something away from this.
As I am in this class, I had the opportunity to both read your story and also be workshopped. I have come to learn that workshopping is very helpful if you can digest the constructive criticism that everyone has prepared to dish out. Although I agree that style is something every writer has to have, there is a difference between understanding the writers style and helping the writer mold a story to develop their style. If you look at what people are saying on your drafts and you notice a pattern of the same thing, perhaps the class is really just trying to push you to help your writing.
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