Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Haven't got long this morning. We're off to give a talk on Screen Writing at midday to some esteemed writing students in Adelaide, SA. Should be fun! I have to thank everyone on Facebook for remembering my birthday this week. It was awesome to see so many happy returns. There were far too many to answer! I feel very humbled by your kindness. Robyn and I had a lovely day down by the beach, then we pottered in the garden in the sunshine - and then off we went to another writer's group in the evening. No rest for the wicked. Have a great week. A writer asked me a question this week about writing style. He thanked me for a couple of the courses he'd taken but thought he needed extra instruction on prose style and finding his unique voice. To be honest I was a little flummoxed as to how to respond. My belief is that style is one of those things you can't really teach. Yes, you can correct stylistic errors. Yes, you can make suggestions as to how to structure writing for...

Let's get one thing straight. A lot of people search the term 'writing style' when they're actually looking for 'writing fonts'. I know. I regularly get Google visitors who've typed in 'tattoo writing styles' or 'graffiti writing styles'. Clearly, they're not looking for 'writing style' at all but rather a collection of fonts they can refer to, copy, or learn from. 'Style' is different - more aligned to technique than anything else. There are various official writing styles - but these are more specifically ways of constructing essays or theses rather than refering to what most writers regard as 'ways of writing'. The APA style is set by the American Psychological Association and is basically a way of organizing information for reports and social science documents. Hardly of use to the average creative writer. The MLA style dictated by the Modern Language Association is favored for college essays and e...