When I started writing, because my first language is not English, I picked up a sci-fi book to read for reference about writing style.
And I got In her name: Empire by Michael R Hicks. The book is really good. I like the story and all but when I see his writing style, I was like "Holy cow, I need to write like that to be a best seller?"
So I tried to imitate his style but.....as you expect, it came out ALL wrong. My sentence structure is weird, stilted dialogues, etc. Some people commented that my normal writing style is ok, why it is so different when I write the book.
And then I look back at my book. Well, yeah, it is surely different and I ask myself why did I have to force writing like that?
And it all change when I read Rick Riordan's book.
To my surprise, the way he wrote the book is pretty simple. I don't see flowery descriptions, purple proses or dramatic dialogues. The sentences flow very well and I really enjoy the book. After that I look back at my book and think "what the hell I'm writing all the time?" I don't say I'm on the level of a best-selling author but I think, yes, I can definitely write like that. At least, my English is good enough to understand everything he wrote.
So I changed...for the better. It still takes a lot of time but now I'm more positive.
And my question: when you edit/rewrite your book, how far do you go? For each chapter, I found out that I rewrote nearly 80% and every time I read again, I found more ways to improve it. I feel that it becomes better and better over the time but I'm not sure it that is a false feeling. On the other hand, I don't want to keep fixing it because the story won't go anywhere if it keeps staying on my computer. It has to go out so that other people can read it.
So what do you think?
And I got In her name: Empire by Michael R Hicks. The book is really good. I like the story and all but when I see his writing style, I was like "Holy cow, I need to write like that to be a best seller?"
So I tried to imitate his style but.....as you expect, it came out ALL wrong. My sentence structure is weird, stilted dialogues, etc. Some people commented that my normal writing style is ok, why it is so different when I write the book.
And then I look back at my book. Well, yeah, it is surely different and I ask myself why did I have to force writing like that?
And it all change when I read Rick Riordan's book.
To my surprise, the way he wrote the book is pretty simple. I don't see flowery descriptions, purple proses or dramatic dialogues. The sentences flow very well and I really enjoy the book. After that I look back at my book and think "what the hell I'm writing all the time?" I don't say I'm on the level of a best-selling author but I think, yes, I can definitely write like that. At least, my English is good enough to understand everything he wrote.
So I changed...for the better. It still takes a lot of time but now I'm more positive.
And my question: when you edit/rewrite your book, how far do you go? For each chapter, I found out that I rewrote nearly 80% and every time I read again, I found more ways to improve it. I feel that it becomes better and better over the time but I'm not sure it that is a false feeling. On the other hand, I don't want to keep fixing it because the story won't go anywhere if it keeps staying on my computer. It has to go out so that other people can read it.
So what do you think?
We all have our different ways of doing things, but I noticed, as I have been writing for a long time, that I usually only have to do two to three drafts before I believe I've nailed it (at least I hope that I have).
