How do writers start writing with style?
I often ask myself: "How do some people write with style?" Is it a talent? How much of it depends on being a native speaker of that language? What about higher education? What's the balance between literary devices knowledge and linguistic techniques? Do I, a non-native English speaker with an engineering background, have any chance of writing other than my default style? I expect to find these answers in so-called "writing advice" pieces. But Henry Oliver has a different solution:
"Writing advice is a lie. Just learn grammar and rhetoric instead"
STEM taught me everything has a set of rules; if you learn and practice them long enough, you'll get the hang of that skill. The writing advice, that the author dismisses, tends to be more abstract and opinionated.
I used to believe learning grammar has a different purpose: To be correct. I didn't imagine learning the ins and outs of a language would help me recognize the techniques and choose the correct one based on the context:
Writing advice is a lie because it doesn’t teach you things like this, and so it doesn’t give you the techniques to choose from. If a writer doesn’t know enough about different sentence structures, they are like a carpenter trying to make a table with only enough wood for a chair.
Oliver also argues that the commercial "Writing Advice" techniques will worsen the situation:
Some writing advice gets to technique. But it is usually bad technique. One perpetual memes is a paragraph from a book of writing advice that teaches you to vary your sentence length to make it sound musical and persuasive. It routinely gets millions of views on social platforms.
I'm guilty of enjoying the aforementioned advice.
Since I've started regarding writing as a craft I wish to improve upon, my sentences began to bother me. Why can't I write any other way than using short sentences? Why my longer sentences are difficult to read? And for the love of god, why do I need to use "but" all the time? Oliver's examples made me recognize my style:
- Write short! It snaps! It sells! It’s simple! It works!
- If you want to sound professional, write the sort of sentences you used to write at college. (Or at least write the sort of sentences you wanted to write.) Don’t give in to the temptation to make everything as short as possible, but instead let your sentences flow to their natural conclusion. Trust your readers to be as smart as your writing.
- Short sentences are fine for most writing, but not this sort of writing. They might look good on adverts, but not on literary Substacks.
- However you write, write left-branching sentences. Like detective movies, they open unexpectedly.
- Undoubtedly, for those writers looking to impress themselves upon the attention of modern intellectuals, nothing could be more apposite, nor more satisfying, than a good old-fashioned periodic sentence.
- Fragments sound smart. Intriguing. They leave possibilities open. Look mysterious. Ineluctable. Daring.
I suppose it gets back to my background in the English language. My informal language classes and work environment expected me to write like numbers two and three. Number two doesn't match my writing outside of professional communication. So the only option left for me is style number three. What I read, however, is a genius match of numbers one, four, and six. I need to learn rhetoric for them.
I've started reading Intermezzo by Sally Rooney these days. I'm fascinated with how a highly anticipated, contemporary piece of literature uses this many fragments and remains not only publishable but saleable. I have a lot to learn about English.
Oliver finishes with where to learn these rules from the right sources:
For that, you are better off reading books like the various grammar guides, Tufte’s Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, Fowler’s Modern English, Forsyth’s Elements of Eloquence, or any other primer of rhetoric. Read as many of these as you need to so that you can practice the techniques you find there.
A great starting point for me.