As a reader, I enjoy contemporary works more than classic works. When I curl up with tea to read, I do so to escape. I want to feel comfortable; I want to know the world in which the protagonist is living; I want to understand the social constructs at more than a cognitive level; I want to be able to walk out my door and find the same things. I enjoy reading books when a conversational syntax is taken; which is why I gravitated first to Leviathan, with its witty conversant style. Reading Leviathan felt like a conversation among friends. I enjoyed the mid-paragraph breaks for side information, such as his brother’s love of juicing. This style breaks the rhythm of the story to add something interesting and worth noting. When read aloud this style of diction feels like home, exemplifying William’s description of “good rhythm” as being “like a perfect symphony orchestra where all the different instruments in the orchestra blend together beautifully to create sweet, soothing and enjoyable music.” (William) I want prose to be like a soft hug after a long day. Even though Leviathan dealt with the heavy topic of an aging father, it felt like that hug–like William’s “perfect symphony.”
As a writer, I also prefer to use a more contemporary approach. I want my work to be accessible to teenagers and to appeal to kids who wouldn’t necessarily read work written in a more classic style. In short, my reading goals are exactly the same as my writing goals: understanding today’s world and conveying that understanding. Contemporary fiction gives me an outlet to meet those goals. I want my writing to greet the reader at an intellectual level and feel like a conversation with an old friend at the same time.
Good style is the same as good design: if the message is understood, educates, entertains and pleases or bothers the audience, it has done its job.
Sedaris, David. “Leviathan.” The New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2015,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/05/leviathan-3. Accessed 06 Oct. 2017.
William, David. “What’s Your Writing Style? Do You Even Have One?” The Web Writer
Spotlight, 21 August 2012, http://webwriterspotlight.com/what-is-your-writing-style.
Abigail Wild - Author/Editor/Coach 