You already have a writing style

So stop worrying about it!

You’re reading Soft Hobbies, a weekly newsletter for imperfect artists with perfectionist tendencies. I’m Auzin, a Seattle-based writer in the fiction, poetry, and tech writing spheres. To see more of my work, go here. And if you hit the heart button on this post, it will help others discover my writing and also make me super happy <3

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Hi softies,

One of the questions that writers often hear is: "how did you develop your writing style?” Which really means “how can I develop my writing style?” There are hundreds of classes, articles, and books dedicated to helping you find and refine your personal style. Successful authors tend to have instantly recognizable styles, with engaging and unique voices that jump off the page. What reader could forget Oscar Wilde’s elegant purple prose, or Shirley Jackson’s anxious interiority, or Ocean Vuong’s direct aim at the poetic heart of things, once they’ve encountered their work? Even if you don’t enjoy or resonate with an author’s work, you can still recognize a well-developed writing style.

Writing style — which I define here as a combination of voice, genre, and themes — is what makes us fall in love with our favorite authors. As readers, writing style is what keeps us turning the page, buying the next entry in the series, and telling all our friends about what we just read. As writers, our writing style helps us build connections with our readers and add new readers to the flock. We all want a standout style. And it can be discouraging to read the work of a successful writer and think: “They sound so original, so authentic. How could I ever do that?”

So, how do you find your writing style?

You don’t. :)

Think back, way way back before you’d ever heard of writing styles or genre tropes or even basic grammar. Think back to the first time you stapled four sheets of paper together, scribbled a story on it, and called it a book. That far back. Were you concerned about book sales? Publishing deals? Market trends? Or were you experiencing the first-time, firsthand joy of creation the way that only a child can?

You can reach that state of flow again. In fact, not experiencing that mindstate is what’s stopping you from making the work you need to make. You’re so worried about your work being original, authentic, and/or marketable that you can’t keep writing. If creativity is a potion bottle you drink from, you’re blocking the neck of the bottle with all these expectations and rules, so nothing comes out.

Want to sound original? In the grand scheme of things, that’s impossible. We use the word “original” to describe things we haven’t encountered before, but since we can’t possibly read every single piece of writing ever written, we’ll never know if something is truly original or not. No work of art is “pure,” even if it feels that way. Your work and ideas will always be influenced (consciously or not) by all the other art and writing you’ve encountered. This isn’t good or bad; it’s just how art works.

Try to stop worrying about the originality of your ideas, and focus instead on if your ideas get you excited to write. For example: you want to write a star-crossed lovers story, but feel like there’s no point because it’s been written about millions of times before. You’ve stabbed yourself in the dominant hand before you’ve even started! You can’t put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) if you think your idea is doomed from the beginning. Just start writing the thing that you feel excited about. The fact that you are a unique person, with a set of experiences, personality traits, and interests that only you have, will be the key to writing original work. More on this later.

Want to create marketable work? Take a copywriting gig. Worrying about the marketability of your writing is damaging to your ego and ultimately futile because market trends change so rapidly. Even if you get a book deal today, your book won’t come out for another two years. By then, the thing you wrote specifically to match today’s bestseller lists could be outdated. Bestseller trends and the book market are extremely fickle and not built to last, so don’t stake your artistic worth on them. You will be proudest of the work you do when you’re thinking about nothing but the work itself.

Want your voice and themes to feel authentic? Write from your heart, create the work you’ve always wanted to create, and trust that your flow state/inner child/beginner mind is leading you to where you need to go. Just keep writing. Your voice and themes will feel authentic to your readers, and eventually to you as well. Sorry for the cliche, but there really is only one of you. Like I said before, your work is a product of your influences. That doesn’t make your writing inauthentic! These influences, along with your experiences and any natural inclinations you have, are what make up your writing style.

You can’t help sounding like you.

This is really the crux of any advice I can give about developing a writing style. You already have a writing style! You can try to change it if you want to, but this adds a lot of unnecessary friction and obstacles to the creative process. Your style will change over time anyways, as your interests change and you level up in your craft.

Think about an author or film director or musician whose entire body of work you love. How does their earliest work compare to their most recent? Can you recognize their style in both? I’m willing to bet that you can, and that their most recent work is actually what seems the most confident, nuanced, authentic, and maybe even the most original. Time and effort spent creating will strengthen your style in the long-term. As you come to understand yourself more as an artist, your work will benefit and your writing style can blossom.

I do worry about my writing style sometimes. Being an expert at comparing yourself to others will lead you down some questionable rabbit holes. But in all honesty, my writing style is none of my business. It’s for other people to define and react to. Everything I’ve learned about it comes from what other people tell me about it. I can’t really control how I write, and I can’t control who responds to it. My writing will evolve as I evolve. My primary task is just to keep going, to write what I feel called to write. So, you don’t need to find your writing style! You can just keep doing the work, and let it find you.

I hope this post was useful. Let me know what you think, and if you’d like me to delve more deeply into any of the topics I brought up here. As always, thanks for your time :)