Chapter 15 marks the beginning of the second section of this book, the writing portion, as short as this portion may be.
As previously mentioned in Chapter 2, your writing style is how eloquent you are with the written word. When writing in general, you should stick with what’s comfortable and add complexity over time. Don’t try to sound super-duper smart at first, or you’ll come off like a poser. In other words, rein in any urges to look like a literary genius, or your readers will see you as fake. You will learn complexity over time if that’s what you’re shooting for.
In this chapter, we will go over simplistic writing styles, complex writing styles, mid-complexity writing styles, and mixing writing styles.
15a: Simplistic Writing Styles:
A simplistic writing style (simple prose) is one that uses minimalist elements in phrasing, sentence and paragraph length, and word choice. This is typically what we call “newspaper speak.” It’s short and to the point. Unfortunately, overusing this style of writing can make you look…well…a little behind in the scholastic department. In other words, it can make you look uneducated and…err…simple.
Here is an example of a simplistic writing style:
Daryll opened the old red truck’s passenger door, and snow fell from the roof to cover his yellow work gloves. He brushed snow from the black passenger seat and looked into the backseat area.
There were some old tools on the floor and in the backseat, and he wondered if any of those tools were useful. Anything at all would help right now.
The passage above tells the story without too much description or word complexity. This type of writing style works best for those who may struggle with linguistic variety or who wish to write to a particular no-nonsense crowd.
15b: Complex Writing Styles:
A complex writing style (complex prose) is one that uses more elaborate elements in phrasing, sentence and paragraph length, and word choice. When overdone, this type of writing can become what people call “purple prose.” This type of writing is what we think of when we think of the “literary elite,” Shakespeare, or anything fancy that you may have been forced to read in high school. Complex writing styles have their place, but overusing this type of style can make you look pretentious, pompous, or just a wannabe or poser. Be judicious in how you write, especially when it comes to writing in a complicated way.
Here is an example of a complex writing style, but we’ll use the previous example from this chapter:
Daryll grunted as he pried loose the old red truck’s passenger door, its frame partially frozen due to the searing cold, that frame protesting with a loud and ungainly screech of metal upon metal, but it gave in the end to provide a necessary boon to Daryll’s own search.
Snow sprinkled from the roof to lightly dust his orange-yellow work gloves, a consequence inflicted by the drifting piles of ivory powder that had been floating and continued to float down from the obnoxious heavens that had released it, that same powder that now infected the bristles of his dark-brown beard.
He took a moment to brush away the offensive crystals of frozen water from the tattered and timeworn ebon passenger seat before him, and then he turned his search toward the backseat area, such backseat areas a haven for things left unfound in these types of vehicles, these flatbed trucks meant for rugged work and an even more rugged life.
There were some old tools on the floor and in the backseat, some of those tools rusty, some worn down from use, but they were all serviceable, and he took yet another moment to ponder if there was anything useful here for his own purpose, something, anything at all, that would help him right now.
As you can tell from the passage above, the complex writing style conveys the same information as the simplistic writing style, though with more detail, more variety in word choice, and more convoluted word placement added in. Either passage works for your reader because they get the gist of what you said either way, but how you say it makes a difference in whether they become irritated with you or not, so keep that in mind.
Really, it comes down to your own choice in the matter, and that choice comes down to what you’re ultimately comfortable with. Remember, this is genre fiction, not Shakespeare…not unless you want it to be. The choice is yours.
15c: Mid-complexity Writing Styles:
This is probably where you want to settle, the balance between simple and complex (mid-prose). However, as I’ve mentioned many times before, you are the final judge in which style you wish to go with.
Mid-complexity writing styles mix simple with complicated when necessary.
Let’s use the previous passage again, only this time with a balance of simple and complex:
Daryll pried open the old red truck’s passenger door, the frost-frozen door releasing a screech from the resisting metal, but it opened nonetheless. Snow fell in a small cloud from the roof to cover his orange-yellow work gloves, that same snow still hitting hard from above, still sticking to his dark-brown beard in a coat of annoying white.
He took a moment to brush snow from the tattered black passenger seat and then turned his eyes to the backseat area. There were some old tools on the floor and in the backseat, all worn, some a little rusty, but all still serviceable, and he wondered if there was anything useful for him here, because he really needed the help. Something, anything at all, would help right now.
As you can see, the passage above is not ridiculously complicated, but it’s not overly simplistic, either. Even so, a mid-complexity writing style may not be right for you. It really depends upon whether you’re comfortable with writing more or less complexity, “comfortable” being the key word here. You should get familiar with the word “comfortable,” because it governs your writing style until you have more experience in the art.
15d: Mixing Writing Styles:
Here’s where it actually gets complicated. Believe it or not, you can change writing styles mid-story depending upon which character is narrating the story. In other words, different characters can see the story in different ways, and your writing style can reflect this. You can also, of course, simply change your writing style to suit individual stories. This is a stylistic choice, but if done right, it enhances the story in ways you might not expect.
Let’s go with a little traditional romance as an example.
First, we’ll start with a simplistic writing style for our character in question:
Joey was not a fan of Lana. The woman was a smart-mouthed know-it-all who he could barely put up with on a good day. Oh, she was a dark-haired beauty with a nice rack, but her mouth more than detracted from that. He was a good old-fashioned country boy, someone who actually worked for a living, and women like her were too soft for his tastes. She just wasn’t his cup of tea.
Now we get to Lana’s description of Joey. We’ll use the complex writing style for this one:
Lana mentally cringed every single time she had to interact with Joey. He was a Neanderthal, a brute of a male who couldn’t tell a salad fork from the actual salad, not that such a barbarian would ever deign to eat a single bite of something that wasn’t freshly killed with a spear.
He was attractive in a rugged way, the kind of man who sported a broad chest and honest muscle, if you were into that sort of thing. He was handsome in the face, with ocean-blue eyes and a square jaw, and this countenance was surrounded by sandy-blonde hair, his hair a color like speckled sand on a coastal beach, something that matched his own imperfect personality, a desirable location inside quotation marks.
Still, he was a lampoon of men everywhere, a public warning against actually marrying one, a modern savage with two working brain cells, and those two brain cells were only functional when it came to regurgitating sexist tripe.
As you can see, you can change your writing style, regardless of which POV you are using, whenever you switch characters. You can change your style within a single character over time, but you need to have a good explanation for this.
15e: In Closing:
Remember, the style of writing you choose should reflect what you’re comfortable with, and you should only mix writing styles once you’re experienced enough to do so. Writing is an art, but it also takes time and dedication to get right, so more than likely, you’ll fall into the writing style you’ll use the most through practice and experience. Once you do, you can leave your comfort zone and experiment with writing styles outside of your usual haven.
The Quick and Easy Guide to Writing Genre Fiction Copyright 1st ed. © 2022 Matthew L. Marlott
TQ&EGtWGF: Chapter 15…Writing Style Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
The image for Chapter 15 of TQ&EGtWGF was generated by artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.