Thoughts On Writing: Styles

(Got down to writing this for two reasons: one, I was inspired by Stephen King's "On Writing" memoir. If you haven't read it and you're a writer, read it now. Two, a conversation on Cloudsdale got me thinking about this. So, shoutout to anyone on Cloudsdale.)

Writing is, simply put, an art form. Like any art form, it requires skill and patience to produce ideal results. However, after spending a great deal of time on this fan fiction site it has come to my attention that there are two main types of writing styles that are most popularly seen. To attempt to describe these two types of writing on their own would prove futile to me, but instead I will compare the two style of writing to two styles of artists: Michelangelo and Lauren Faust.

Michelangelo's style of art is known worldwide. He paintings are incredibly life-like and has incredible detail to down to the smallest facial hair. His works are literally massive in scale and has taken him years to paint each of them.

Lauren Faust's style, along with her husband Craig McCraken, is also relatively known. She creates interesting characters that may not have much detail but are completely original and they captivate audiences of all ages. It might not take her years to create her characters, but there is a definite measure of skill that is evident in her style.

Now, take those two people and apply their styles to the written page. You can be reading a masterpiece of literature, details filling the brim of every page (of which there are hundreds) and was painstakingly researched, planned out, and analyzed even before it was put down on paper.

Or, you could be reading an entertaining piece of fiction with fun characters and an enjoyable and thought out plot. There's not a whole lot of detail within, but the story is captivating enough to keep your interest.

Those, to me, are the two most common forms of writing out there.

However, the question goes to something around the line of this: Which is better? Now, I could go on for hours describing my views on this, but in the end my tangent would lead to a simple answer: It's all a matter of opinion. It really is. You could go on saying "Well, the high realism is great but it distracts from the story" or "The characters are fantastic but there's hardly any detail" and it still wouldn't matter because it'd be your opinion.

As for me, I'd say that my style of writing would fall in the "simpler" category. I know that I'm not making the next "War and Peace" every time I sit down to write. I am perfectly comfortable with writing entertaining stories.

I am a storyteller, after all. That's what everybody here is. Where are all simply storytellers, which is term not used as often as it should these days to describe writers. We're here to share our stories to those who take their time to read them. It's a beautiful regrowth of the writer to reader demand that hasn't been seen in decades. We have ushered in a new era of art creation and exploration.

And to all those aspiring writers, I have this to say: WRITE! If you got any good story on your mind, share it with us! We don't bite. We're bronies, for Celestia's sake! We are,honestly, the nicest fandom out there. It doesn't matter if you write a story that's five hundred pages long or five pages long. To put it metaphorically, your imagination is the paint, your fingertips are the brushes, and the words and sentences are your canvas. All you have to do is start painting.

Speaking of which, I should probably get back to finishing my story. The "painting" is not yet done and I'm pretty sure my audience doesn't like watching the paint dry.