Writing Styles

Started by: Wyrmspawn | Replies: 51 | Views: 3,824

Wyrmspawn
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Sep 22, 2013 2:13 PM #1086834
All right, first off, I wasn't sure where to post this; this thread may actually belong to the general section, but I think it should get more results from writers than other denizens of stickpage. Mods, if I posted this in the wrong place, I plead incompetence. :)

Recently, I came across an article that described two different kinds of writers, termed "swoopers" and "bashers". In the passage, it was claimed that all writers can usually identify as either a swooper or a basher in their writing styles (This was according to Kurt Vonnegut). So, to give a general overview of what a swooper and a basher are, respectively:

Swooper (Click to Show)


Basher (Click to Show)


Original quote from Kurt Vonnegut (Click to Show)


Having read the descriptions, I'd like to ask: Would you identify yourself as a swooper or a basher, or as a mixture of both?

Edit: There's also another, almost legendary style: You just write whatever comes out of the top of your head, but it reads like poetry anyway. If you happen to be one of these people... I'm going to give up writing forever and die of pure envy.
acutelatios
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Sep 22, 2013 2:41 PM #1086852
Haha, I guess I'm a bit of both. My process of writing a story is mostly thinking of the whole plot first to get the rough outline of it before beginning to write it. Once I begin that, I think of the best way to start the opening passage to the story.

Sometimes I just rush it and just write down the first few sentences that come into my head, but after a few paragraphs I look back at it and then revise before continuing again. Most of the time though I take my time to form the perfect opening sentences and then the rest is just a stop and go type of thing where I write whatever comes to mind and then stopping to reword weird lines and fix grammar errors~

o w o
GuardianTempest
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Sep 22, 2013 3:02 PM #1086858
I'm a bit of both, like acutelatios here, I painstakingly write paragraph by paragraph, then I go over it and constantly ask myself "Does it look right to you? What else can you add/remove?"
ErrorBlender
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Sep 22, 2013 4:48 PM #1086902
I'm usually a Basher but when time goes by and I haven't checked on it for quite some time, I'll go and revise it.
Crank
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Sep 22, 2013 5:10 PM #1086907
Not counting the first and last sentence, diffidently a swooper!
blakphoenix
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Sep 22, 2013 9:18 PM #1087045
I am absolutatively the third and legendary writer style. Begin dying now Wyrmspawn! :P

Lol jk, I'm 100% swooper, (Swoop there it is)!
Nightlock
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Sep 23, 2013 12:43 AM #1087109
Could you put up a link to this article, Wyrm? You've peaked my interest with the information you've given us, and I'd like to read a little from the source. ^_^

I would say I'm a bit of both. I'm constantly rewording sentences to make sure I'm happy with them, and then when I finish a paragraph I go back and read it then edit. Then when I finish a page I reread and edit. And once I've finished the story I AGAIN reread and edit. Write then edit, reread and compare then edit, then back to write; LOL It's a cycle for me really.
Hewitt

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Sep 23, 2013 1:31 AM #1087123
I'm moving this to general discussion. Not everyone writes stories, but everyone certainly writes. It'd be interesting to know how everyone does it.

If it doesn't get much action, I'll gladly return it to the WL.


Anyways, I think Swoopers are the "right" way to write AKA White Heat and Cold Blood. I'd like to think much of the ambitiously competent writers here who aren't in a rush to get instant praise are Swoopers. Bashers are for the inexperienced; people who wanna get into writing and just "wanna have fun". But not to say Bashers are bad. Sometimes the situation calls for them like a comp for Flash Fiction or a brainstorm session. Regardless, quality work from Bashers is the exception not the rule and should only be produced if said certain conditions require it.
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Sep 23, 2013 1:41 AM #1087125
I'm a bit of both but I'm 100% more of a swooper than a basher. Well I have my own style like:

Plan the plot >>> Go to Google and search some words that are suitable for my story and sometimes I'll find a synonym/antonym of the word I found >>> Put the word I found on Google into my story >>> Go to Wattpad and read some short stories and try understanding some words they used in their stories >>> Now google all the hard-to-understand words I found from Wattpad and then after Googling it I'll put them in my story when I understand it now >>> Repeat process until I'm done.

lol, ikr? it's kinda hard but that's also my style.
Hitsu
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Sep 23, 2013 1:59 AM #1087137
Quote from Lethal5
Plan the plot >>> Go to Google and search some words that are suitable for my story and sometimes I'll find a synonym/antonym of the word I found >>> Put the word I found on Google into my story >>> Go to Wattpad and read some short stories and try understanding some words they used in their stories >>> Now google all the hard-to-understand words I found from Wattpad and then after Googling it I'll put them in my story when I understand it now >>> Repeat process until I'm done.


LMAO i use to do that style when I doesn't even know the word i want to input to the story,but instead of google i use their translator to translate it.Also thanks i leeched some strategy.

Back to the topic,I use to be a Basher but i think i should try the swooper.
Vorpal
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Sep 23, 2013 2:03 AM #1087141
Quote from Nish]I liked that blonde mexican whore. What happened to him?[/quote]
[QUOTE=Jutsu
After a blurry night of drug induced sexual adventure wrapped in chemical delusion and complete ecstasy Nish drifts into consciousness.
He was shoulders down on the tile floor in the bathroom of his studio apartment, awoken only by the constant rattling of a ceiling fan that has probably been broken since Jesus was corporeal, the sound of his bath tub faucet dripping and the sudden guttural urge to purge his stomach of the various illegal substances that were put into it the night before. Opening his eyes he can see his ceiling swirling with the checkered red and black roof tiles oozing blood from in between one another. He pays no attention to the tiny blue men standing there, upside down, throwing polka dots that upon impact dissipate into a cloud of hearts and make the sound of lightning.
Suddenly spurred to regurgitate copious fluid from his digestive bits he lurches forward, shaking uncontrollably. His tongue flops out of his mouth down into the bowl only after his collar bones crashes ungracefully and bounce off of the toilet seat, his legs folded beneath him limp. "Huuuuuuuuuunhhhhhhh" He breaths out exasperatedly. A glob of drool and stomach bile oozes out of his mouth and splashes into the toilet water, forming from a frothy, foamy disgusting mess into a hungry school of piranhas. Out of the corner of his eyes that burn dry as the scorching desert sands that he slept with open, he can see a coyote sitting on the edge of his bathroom counter eating a bag of lays sriracha flavored potato chips. It's irises glowing a fierce electric blue and its pupils, one black as the abyss, one bright as the core of a star. It speaks to him "Only through feeding, life". It crackles into a stream of dazzling electricity right into his mirror/medicine cabinet combo that hovers over his sink, causing it to smash and spill pills out all over the counter and the floor. Immediately all the blue men on the ceiling point synchronized and begin cackling at him like a pack of rustled devils, then they slowly step together and neatly line up single file and begin leaping into the ceiling fan one by one, hand in hand, ecstatically singing with grimaces on their faces ."Human are blue, now we're red. First alive, then we're dead through and through. Heyyyooo!"
His intestines rumble, his mouth tastes like filth and Nish thinks it better not to leave the piranhas hungry. The fluid launches violently as his abdominal muscles clinch with all their might and out the esophagus and nostrils a tea cup worth of very yellow fluid trickles down the side of his face and cheek, then dripping into the toilet. Accompanied only by a single painful, burning tear, trudging itself miserably across his face. The piranhas down below enthusiastically met the droplets and devoured them in a swirling mess, like starving creatures clinging to life. "Ulp! Hrrrrrrrrrrrrg!" He wretches as another burst of vomit arises, however this time it's projected rapidly and in quantity.
Soon, only between excruciating dry heaves, muscle convulsions and coughing fits can Mister Niruthan take a few desperate gasps for what passes for fresh air when you're face down in a shit and piss receptacle. His heart throttles his veins, each pulse is like the thunderous concussive blast of god slamming his car door. His skin writhing, drenched in sweat from brow to toe he looks to be a sickening ghoulish color and his skeletal structure quivers and quakes tremulously like a child playing too hard with a new toy...and he's the toy.
"BANG!" He hears, his eyes squint and he cringes in exquisite agony. "BANG!" He hears and feels it again as it echoes through his whole body. "BANG!" Gritting his teeth until they feel like they're about to crack beneath the pressure, and again. "BANG!" His shaky, blood shot eyes rock back and forth and leer over towards his bath tub faucet, watching as a drop of water accumulates from inside it to the bottom and plummets into the bathtub as it crashes it makes yet another "BANG!"
"FUCK that's FUCKING loud" He croaks, with his raspy weakened voice. Like a limp puppet with its strings being tugged on he hastily and shakily reaches to the knob that control the water, twisting them firmly, to assure himself that the water is now fully off to stop the noise. He wheezes like a wounded animal with his lungs clicking as loose vomit rattles around the inside and sloppily wipes the sweat from his forehead with the same hand he had just used. Feeling an abnormality in temperature and texture from his palm, blinking several times attempting to straighten his dazed vision he notices he is covered in red from finger to wrist.
Suddenly unnerved he hastily glances to the bathtub, then to his hand, then to the bathtub, then to his hand, then to the bathtub.
Only now does he notice a whore who goes by the handle of "ChristainEater" laying dead in an arterial red pool of their own blood laying lifeless in Nish's tub.

This is the story of a man name Nish Niruthan and his journey to learn exactly what happened to ChristainEater.
*Que intro theme*


I don't know...

stylistically I just kinda wing it.
Mantha
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Sep 23, 2013 12:31 PM #1087315
I am a basher. It's stressful sometimes.
GuardianTempest
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Sep 23, 2013 12:40 PM #1087319
EDIT: Damn, I forgot to indicate I was referring to Hewitt.

Are you sure you didn't get that mixed up?
Wyrmspawn
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Sep 23, 2013 1:53 PM #1087354
Quote from Nightlock
Could you put up a link to this article, Wyrm? You've peaked my interest with the information you've given us, and I'd like to read a little from the source. ^_^

I would say I'm a bit of both. I'm constantly rewording sentences to make sure I'm happy with them, and then when I finish a paragraph I go back and read it then edit. Then when I finish a page I reread and edit. And once I've finished the story I AGAIN reread and edit. Write then edit, reread and compare then edit, then back to write; LOL It's a cycle for me really.


Sorry for the late reply, but here's where I found it:http://narrativeintheblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/swooping-and-bashing/

I couldn't find the original webpage, but this one basically agrees with most of what the page I read said.

Quote from Hewitt
Anyways, I think Swoopers are the "right" way to write AKA White Heat and Cold Blood. I'd like to think much of the ambitiously competent writers here who aren't in a rush to get instant praise are Swoopers. Bashers are for the inexperienced; people who wanna get into writing and just "wanna have fun". But not to say Bashers are bad. Sometimes the situation calls for them like a comp for Flash Fiction or a brainstorm session. Regardless, quality work from Bashers is the exception not the rule and should only be produced if said certain conditions require it.


Interesting... you do realize the the Bard (Shakespeare) can be considered a basher? It was the envy of many other writers of his time that he never had to edit his plays at all; he just wrote what he liked and it seemed to work out for him. Some people see those records and state that's because he's a genius, but I personally think he was just a really, really good basher. (Of course, after further thought, having to copy an entire page by hand if he gets it wrong might also be a reason to be a basher rather than a swooper.)

For me, bashing actually seems like the harder thing to do, if you do it right. Good bashers don't write what comes out of the top of their heads; they make millions of possible sentences in their heads before picking out the best one and moving on. This is the sort of style that should only be used by pros, from my point of view anyway; they have to be good enough to consider all the ways they can portray a certain scene, then pick out the best way and agonize over every single word before moving on.

By contrast, swooping is simply where you record an idea and keep expanding on it, and (hopefully) improving it. Swooping, therefore, should be the easier style to use. But that is another poll alltogether, isn't that?:confused:


Anyway, I consider myself a swooper. Unless I'm writing poetry, I don't really bash; and I'm a poor poet at that, so I guess that makes me a swooper.
Xate
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Sep 23, 2013 3:06 PM #1087372
Hm...Guess I'm practicing to be a swooper, then. Basher...never been it before (I think?)