Have you ever gotten stuck on a specific writing style?

[MakBow]

I remember before I wrote in 3rd person, but overtime, I thought it was draining (I was just a$$ at writing) and then I switched to first person, which was good for a while until I realize how limiting it felt for me at least, so I changed back, but I was trash at it for a while until I was able to not only improve in my writing, but I managed to get back into it and explore a lot better.

 

[Sylver]

No I use to write in first person, but my story ideas involve multiple perspectives so only my first ever story stuck with that style of writing.
Remember, experience leads to improvement when paired with persistence part of how I grew and developed as a writer was by reading other literature and novels and taking notes on how they wrote. Vocabulary, themes, similes, etc.
It's okay to suck at one thing, as long as you aim to improve on it over time. You just need to put the effort to correct it.

 

[Shamiko]

not really no. only thing that stumps me is giving characters distinct ways of speaking that lets the reader know ''oh it's this character talking''

 

[MFontana]

I'm not really sure what you're asking, but if you mean have I ever struggled with any particular writing style, I'd have to say no.
Mostly because I don't try to mimic any existing style.
It's been a lot of time, work, and effort, to hone and refine my own style.

If you mean struggling with any specific aspects or areas of a given narrative, or genre, then absolutely the answer would be yes.
We all have our areas of expertise, and the areas that we struggle with, and that's okay.

Personally, I'm not exceptionally skilled when it comes to action/fight sequences, or writing in a Light-Novel stylized, or brevity-driven format.

As for where I'd say my talents are particularly well-honed, I'd have to say it would probably be with the world-building, immersion, and character depth in order to make the world feel real and lived-in. Beyond that, creating and designing game-based systems for incorporation into a narrative.

As for the use of any given PoV, I tend to favor writing narrative in third-person limited, with insight into only the protagonist's thoughts, partially because when I write in first-person, it can be particularly intense, or overwhelming for my readers. As a result, I tend to limit my use of first-person to external preludes/interludes rather than narrative itself.

So, in truth, I can't say that I struggle with writing in either PoV (First or Third), but that has simply come from extensive practice, as well as a lot of reading, and learning how other people have written in the given perspective.

 

[SouthernMaiden]

I write in first. And I think they key is that EVERYTHING needs to be from the perspective of your character, including descriptions, views of other characters ect. It can be limiting

Like once every 10 chapters I write a chapter from.the perspective of someone else im the story, to flesh things out

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

I tend to write in 3rd person, and since my stories tend to have multiple POVs, it was more natural for me on he onset. I tried 1st person for a while, but I found that way too limiting for me, too claustrophobic, so it's 3rd person for me.

As for getting hung up on a certain writing style, I don't really think about it that way. I don't try to imitate any one style, just take aspects of the stuff I read and incorporate them into my existing style. So it's kind of a hodgepodge of a little bit of everything, really.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

I'll swap PoV's frequently, usually between line breaks to announce the change. I hop from different characters, to 1st and 3rd, or whatever the scene seems to need.

 

[CanOfTuna]

I'm kinda stuck in the stream-of-consciousness style where there are a lot of sudden jumps between scenes.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

My bigger problem is accidentally slipping into or out of first person in a third person story or vice versa.

 

[seavmun88]

1st person narration can have its place, but it's also the first thing that most beginner writers use. It's way easier to get into a flow for that since you're not writing that different than how you'd talk about yourself. So getting into 3rd person can be a speed bump until you've gotten a hang of it. Having to actually decide what details to bring up. Describing scenes and visuals without having a full chapter of observations. Balancing objective & Subjective narration. Even I can write 1st person lol journal or stream of consciousness or whatever tf.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

1st person narration can have its place, but it's also the first thing that most beginner writers use. It's way easier to get into a flow for that since you're not writing that different than how you'd talk about yourself. So getting into 3rd person can be a speed bump until you've gotten a hang of it. Having to actually decide what details to bring up. Describing scenes and visuals without having a full chapter of observations. Balancing objective & Subjective narration. Even I can write 1st person lol journal or stream of consciousness or whatever tf.

I keep hearing that but most of the people I know offline who do any writing beyond what was required in school started in third person because that was what they'd read and knew. I found it harder to transition to first person at first. Now I just occasionally forget which voice I'd been using in a given story and accidentally switch between chapters.

 

[JKKnotts]

Oh, when I get suck in patterns of how I'm writing... I just read some books. I generally pick up quirks depending on what I've been reading recently. I read my friend's stories (quick shout out to Eleanor Wells and her published stories). I tend to lean on more heavy very long sentences and more flowery prose. And third person and first person have their own limits (some are better for some stories than other POVs)

 

[TinaMigarlo]

I keep hearing that but most of the people I know offline who do any writing beyond what was required in school started in third person because that was what they'd read and knew. I found it harder to transition to first person at first.

^^^ this is me.

like a lot of stuff in writing? i hear a split of directly opposed opinions, both delivered as if they were facts.
"first person is easiest, everyone starts with that."
"third person is the easiest, every beginner does that."
...and I sit back and scratch my head.
and everyone wonders why I *question* everything.

"first person is actually harder..."
"third person is harder to do correctly..."
it never ends.

and to the person up there that said "I do all third person, with first person for prelude and interludes"? I do the exact opposite.
*shrugs*

 

[CharlesEBrown]

^^^ this is me.

like a lot of stuff in writing? i hear a split of directly opposed opinions, both delivered as if they were facts.
"first person is easiest, everyone starts with that."
"third person is the easiest, every beginner does that."
...and I sit back and scratch my head.
and everyone wonders why I *question* everything.

"first person is actually harder..."
"third person is harder to do correctly..."
it never ends.

and to the person up there that said "I do all third person, with first person for prelude and interludes"? I do the exact opposite.
*shrugs*

The weirdest "person" I've encountered was in E. R. Eddings The Worm Ouroboros - it starts with a SECOND person prologue, dragging the reader in as an observer, with a weird transition in the second chapter to introduce the main character, but it maintains a level of separation from said character because it is still addressing the reader directly instead of just telling the story. Some love this style, I just found it jarring.

 

[Eldoria]

I remember before I wrote in 3rd person, but overtime, I thought it was draining (I was just a$$ at writing) and then I switched to first person, which was good for a while until I realize how limiting it felt for me at least, so I changed back, but I was trash at it for a while until I was able to not only improve in my writing, but I managed to get back into it and explore a lot better.

Why not use an adaptive POV approach? Each POV should be tailored to the needs of the story, rather than forcing it to use one.

For example, if you want the reader to feel emotionally connected to the protagonist's inner state in an introspective scene, first POV is more appropriate because you are free to narrate your character's thoughts and feelings flexibly, narrating the scene from the character's head.

If you want to narrate a grandiose scene to show the complexity of your worldbuilding, then objective third POV would be more appropriate. You can depict the scene objectively, moving between locations and even across space and time as the narrative camera follows a visual anchor like a cinematic film.

In short, POV should be tailored to your narrative needs.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

@CharlesEBrown
@Eldoria

referencing the two posts above this one...
This is a first for me.
Eldoria's post made perfect easy sense to me. (not often I get to say that, lol)
Charles's post sounded like calculus this time.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

@CharlesEBrown
@Eldoria

referencing the two posts above this one...
This is a first for me.
Eldoria's post made perfect easy sense to me. (not often I get to say that, lol)
Charles's post sounded like calculus this time.

I found calculus easier to read than The Worm Ouroboros...

 

[bulmabriefs144]

Tended to write in first person. Right now, revising a Bible, so getting a feel for writing third person. Though certain parts do have first person, some of that, I edited to be third person.

 

[ElijahRyne]

I remember before I wrote in 3rd person, but overtime, I thought it was draining (I was just a$$ at writing) and then I switched to first person, which was good for a while until I realize how limiting it felt for me at least, so I changed back, but I was trash at it for a while until I was able to not only improve in my writing, but I managed to get back into it and explore a lot better.

I often switch perspectives between some sort of 3rd narrator and first person, however I have been experimenting with solely using an uninterrupted 1st person narration. I would say the result is so so. It makes intense or interesting scenes all the more interesting and more boring or transitional ones mor boring imo.