Tell Me About Your Writing/Drawing Style

[AnimeKitty]

As the title says, tell me about your writing and/or drawing style. Have you ever felt like it got worse with time? Or better? What about your style do you like the most? What do you dislike most about it?

I'm asking this because I feel like my writing style has gotten worse rather than improved. Perhaps I'm just being hard on myself? I'm not sure. It's just so hard to keep writing a story when it feels like I'm wording everything wrong or too weirdly. I keep wanting to go back and rewrite it over and over again. I'll never make it past the third chapter at this rate. So I figured it would be interesting to hear from others about any troubles you might've had with your style and how you fixed it, or tried to at least.

[HippieGhost]

My writing style seems to flow in and out of varying styles, but overall it has a very dry sense of humor not unlike what you'd expect in books like Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy or The Discworld Series. That said it approaches difficult topics with care and I try to treat all of my characters with respect even when I'm poking fun at them. A lot of the jokes can be blink-and-you-miss-it, but there's plenty of obvious quips thrown in the mix.

My suggestion for you is to stop editing until you go to post. Remember that what you write may seem dry to you because you 1: wrote it, and 2: read it over several dozen times already. My strategy for editing is to finish the story first, then go back and read through for an edit, then have a friend look it over with me before doing one more edit, a technique that @HopefulAttempt taught me.

Either way, your own story will bore the everloving crap out of you the second and third times you read it. You already know what to expect, so focus on having fun during the process and trust yourself to make quality work.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Jokes on you because I don't have one.
At this point I just cannot be bothered for trying to be eloquent or having an "interesting" style. As a reader, writing styles mostly read the same for me.

[BreakingChalk]

"Sheet" happens.

I too felt my art style was going down few years ago, in fact It went from cartoonish, to wannabe-realistic, to cartoonish again, to cartoonish+anime-influenced.
I'd say it has improved, as it is more kin to the style I had in mind when I first made these characters.
Still, I'd like to try other styles on other stuff to open room for crazier stuff in the future.

As in terms of writing, I've had good receptions on stuff I wrote in the past, but reading it again I see some major flaws, though I don't remember ever writing something in English without any illustrations, so I have the bar low for now on that regard.

[rajillustration]

I feel like mine has gotten way better over time, but maybe not in a way that other people can see. My art is more simplified--but to me it's like "hot damn it's so much cleaner and legible!" and my writing has also gained a lot of clarity, where I used to dwell a little too much on how many similes I can pull out of my ass. So honestly I've just gotten better at communicating with my art and my writing, which is a factor that sometimes gets ignored when a lot of readers look first and foremost at how much details and colors and action are happening on screen.

[kavaj]

It’s the opposite for me somehow i started with realistic drawing as a kid, and then lose interest and converted to semi-realistic and now i just want simple style for simple life

[cherrystark]

I'm a pantser but my style originally came from a book I read from Lee David Zlotoff, creator of MacGyver, about his way to "MacGyver" a solution to any problem. Basically, if you need a spark of inspiratiton on a project, go do something else for a while and when you're ready to come back, you'll have your idea. He used this method whenever he needed to come up with a MacGyver solution in his scripts.

For me, once I find an idea that inspires me, I "stir" it around a bit. I might jot down a few notes or draw some pictures. If a concrete scene appears in my head, I write it down. I layer scene after scene, until the story takes shape. I don't worry too much about losing my place or reworking the same part multiple times. The next "scene" that plays in my head is generally the next scene in the story.

[HopefulAttempt]

My style is to get really obsessed with a scene (usually inspired by a song) then struggle to pace myself in getting to said scene, and then convince myself I should put in more back story until I have 100+ pages of content before reaching said scene. I've done this three times, and I don't know how to feel about it.
However, I do feel like I've improved, but whenever I improve in one way I seem to go backwards in another. For example, I used to be really good at managing details of my solo-works throughout the story, but now I can't focus for the life of me but I can do it for collaborations.
In the end though my style is to be as true as possible to my characters' personalities, traumas and experiences as I can be. Half of my plot lines were stumbled upon (at least in my unpublished works) through character development goals.
The biggest issue I had with my writing was my lack of descriptions and flowery language because all my schooling is for writing lab journals and scientific papers, but I got better at using more descriptive language because @hippieghost kindly annoyed me to no end about it (disclaimer: it was only annoying because I don't like messing things up. He was very kind and supportive in his criticism.)

The bit of advice I have for the rewriting is to take a bit of time between reviews of it, and as Hippie said, have a peer look over it. I say peer instead of friend because in my experience with friends that are not writers they tend to give feedback like "Good stuff" "I liked that bit" and "Why do you hurt me like this?" rather then constructive feed back.

[Pony_wearing_a_hat]

I like to think that I try to paint vivid word pictures and punchy dialogue but in reality it's mostly just angry word vomit.

[AnimeKitty]

I usually enjoy dry humor in both stories and shows. Occasionally I include it in my own writing style too. I understand wanting to treat your characters with respect even when poking fun of them, especially with handling difficult topics.

I see where you're coming from with the editing being an issue. It's a first draft too, so it's bound to not be perfect. But I guess I keep trying to make it that way. It's very possible my constant editing is making it seem rather dry to me. I'll definitely try finishing the story before going through to edit. Having a friend look over it is a really great idea too. I've got a few writer friends who I'm sure wouldn't mind helping me out with it, after I finish.

Thank you so much for the helpful advice!

[HippieGhost]

I'm glad I can help! If you need any more feel free to reach out!

[AnimeKitty]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by not having your own style? Everyone has one. Maybe yours is just simple? Nothing wrong with that either. Sometimes simple works very well for stories. Perhaps you've also read a lot of stories with similar writing styles?

[AnimeKitty]

I think your cartoonish-anime style here is cute. Understandable to wanna try other stuff eventually too.

[AnimeKitty]

@cherrystark That's really cool how Lee David Zlotoff helped you develop your style originally. I like that way of thinking too. After speaking with another writer friend, I realized that it could be I feel so "bored" is because I plotted this entire story out. I know what'll happen from start to finish. Unlike how I usually plot the main things out, like the beginning scenes, setting, and characters. I always heard how it's better to be a plotter, but I'm seeing now that I might be a pantser. Thanks for the great advice here!

@HopefulAttempt Oh, I like how you use music to inspire you for your works. That's a lot of backstory. But as long as it's important to the story, it can work. I've done that with backstory in my writing sometimes too. I also really like how you keep your style true to the characters. I'll be sure to take note of that. It's great how you got better with your descriptions too! I'll be sure to take that advice on waiting for rewriting and heavily editing. I've got some writer friends who can help with feedback too.

@Pony_wearing_a_hat Nice! That's great how you paint vivid word pictures too.

[cherrystark]

I have felt the same way. I've had some ideas where I've plotted out the entire arc on paper and lost all excitement for the idea. I still jot down my characters, main idea, etc, but the rest is open. I literally came up with the idea for Part 2 of my series "The Fairest" while on a walk last summer. By the time I got home, the story was ready to be written.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

It's not like something distinguishable or standing out from the rest, somebody have said a same thing too. I believe in other people's world more regarding my shortcomings because it is less biased than my own.

For art style, the distinction between styles are more apparent and obvious as it is a visual medium. Still, I don't put much emphasis on it. I believe it will come naturally, even if you don't direct it towards a goal like copying a style. People said my style is unappealing, too.

[AnimeKitty]

Yeah, I understand that feeling of losing excitement. I think that's what I've done with this story I'm working on. It's good to have some of the main things plotted out, but I've enjoyed coming up with some ideas on the spot.

[cherrystark]

Me too. I sometimes consider my random notes as the points on a river that are built up to help direct the flow of the story. I like seeing where the story will go.

[Kaydreamer]

Good topic! I'm going to write a lot here, mostly because I want to put it into words for my own self reflection. (I hope nobody thinks I'm tooting my own horn a little too loudly. )

I'm not an experienced writer, I've just dabbled throughout my life. I sure as heck have never written a comic before. It's weird not having the luxury of narration, especially since I think emotive and moody narration is one of my greater strengths when writing.

When I write, I've noticed I tend toward a few stylistic conventions. With narrative writing, I like to cultivate a nice rhythmic cadence and flow. I use commas liberally, and I 'pace' each sentence so that nothing ends too abruptly, nor in the wrong place. I also sprinkle in very short sentences, a little here, a little there, which has the effect of emphasising whatever I put in them. The writer whose literary style I enjoy most, and who probably has the most influence on my own, is Neil Gaiman. I would describe his writing style as poetic, and I try to emulate that feature. I also think I write with clarity, despite the flourishes. That probably comes from teaching.

With comic writing, I've chosen not to use a 3rd person narrator, which honestly feels like chopping off an arm. I'm leaning on dialogue and expressive character art to carry the tone instead, as though my comic were an animation. I write all my dialogue by first speaking it aloud, over and over, until I have the tone, expression and pacing of it sounding natural and unique to the character. It's only then that I begin to write it down.

My biggest weakness as a writer is that I suck at micro-plot. It's always the last thing I settle on. I love cosy character moments, and big emotive scenes, but stringing it all together into a cohesive story is by far the most challenging part for me. I love the plot I have so far for Blue Star Rebellion, there are a lot of powerful stand-alone moments, but the action scenes are still missing giant chunks. That's something I'll have to deal with in a few months when I hit the first big mission. It will work out, it's just the hardest part of writing for me.

As for my drawing style... I'm currently happy with where it's at, but there are definitely features I would like to incorporate and continue refining. I love the way I colour, and I really like how emotive the faces on my characters have become. Over the last 12 months I've been focusing on how facial expressions affect the eyes, which has led to much more expression. I want to keep pushing this further.

I'd also like to incorporate more detail into the way I draw faces. A tiny bit more realism - not much, just ever-so-slightly slightly smaller eyes and more detailed noses and mouths - will give me more room to ensure each character looks distinct, and expresses themselves in distinct ways. 'The Dragon Prince' animated series does this just about perfectly, and that's the direction my style is naturally heading toward as I improve.

Part of the reason I made Blue Star Rebellion my first comic project is because the protagonist is a grown man with a good-sized nose. (My comfort zone is cute girls with round faces. ) As I continue drawing him over and over, he'll naturally pick up extra details along the way, and everything I learn about facial structure through him will begin to seep into my other work. (His hair is already growing increasingly more scruffy!)

I also need to improve my ability to draw figures and faces at dynamic angles. But so does almost every intermediate-level artist, I'm far from alone there. Gotta do those figure studies!

[Inspector_Spinda]

my style is semi realism in terms of anatomy, but cartoony in terms of expression. not sure if that's the right way to describe it but it's cartoony without stretching things too much