Style vs. Non-style Elements of Writing

[Louanne Learning]

Style is determined by a piece of writing’s structural elements, like word choice, sentence structure, and tone and rhythm.

Non-style elements include its content, substance, and meaning.

According to the ancients, the meaning, substance and content should come first.

As Cato said, “Grasp the subject, the words will follow.” (Rem tene, verba sequentur.) Words come after, not before.

Aristotle initiated the tradition of making language “so transparent a medium that it disappears and interposes no obstacle or screen between the reader and the things it points to.” (Fish, How to Read a Sentence, page 39)

Should it be style over non-style elements, or non-style elements over style? Which one should be favoured? What value does style have?

 

[Madman Starryteller]

Why can't they all come at once? Can't all the components be equally important to make the whole?

If I had to choose, I would go for non-style elements as most important for me. Mostly because I really enjoy a well built believable world. But it has to come at an acceptable style standard, which goes back to my first comment.

 

[Also]

Art requires both substance and style. That is what makes it art, and not mere instruction.

Aristotle and Homer and Tolstoy and Elmore Leonard were big on rules that would supposedly make a science of the art of fiction.

Aristotle also told us that human disease was merely the imbalance of Air, Earth, Water and Fire, manifest through blood, black bile, phlegm and yellow bile.

Fortunately, we've progressed a great deal since the Ancients. Impressionism and abstract painting (and sculpture) obey few if any such rules, yet some examples are pinnacles of intelligent expression and intelligence made visible.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I think it may be that idea needs to come before execution?

If you make your words come first, then the words take over.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Art requires both substance and style.

But, by necessity, you can only start with one of them

 

[Madman Starryteller]

I think it may be that idea needs to come before execution?

If you make your words come first, then the words take over.

Oh yes, idea needs to come first, in my case anyway. I can sit down in front of a blank page, and ideas may come as I write or make things up on the go, but the ideas always come first. To write cluelessly seems impossible, but social media exists, so who am I to say what's possible?

 

[Naomasa298]

But, by necessity, you can only start with one of them

That's not really true. Often, the story comes out of the style.

I could rewrite one of my Vancian stories in a different style, and while it might have the same events, it would fall flat. The story works *because* of the style, not the other way around. It would be a different story.

It's the same way that noir is written in a particular tone and style, or literary fiction, or many other genres. Style and substances are not mutually exclusive.

Think of poetry. That emphasises style as much as substance, and it's integral.

Yes, style alone cannot make a story, but neither can ideas alone, especially outside of science fiction.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Yes, style alone cannot make a story, but neither can ideas alone.

I agree.

I actually thought of you, when these ideas were coming to my head - or anyone else who seeks to write a story in the style of a famous writer.

But - maybe - the basic bones of the meaning still have to come first?

Then the story is crafted to match a particular style?

 

[Naomasa298]

I actually thought of you, when these ideas were coming to my head - or anyone else who seeks to write a story in the style of a famous writer.

But - maybe - the basic bones of the meaning still have to come first?

Then the story is crafted to match a particular style?

Well, when I conceive a story, I conceive it in a style. I can't separate the two. I might be writing comic space pulp in the style of Harry Harrison or Regency Weird in the style of Jane Austen, but the story idea comes to me in those styles. I would struggle to write those ideas in styles other than the one I conceived them in. The stories I've recently completely plotted are in different styles and genres - one Arthur C. Clarke-esque style sci-fi, one King-style horror (superficially similar to Cujo), a Donaldson-style historical fantasy, and so on. It's less that I'm doing a direct pastiche of these authors, it's more the tone and feel, which is an element of style rather than idea.

Or, to blend the two things together, I would call it the story concept, which is a mix of both idea and style.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Well, when I conceive a story, I conceive it in a style. I can't separate the two. I might be writing comic space pulp in the style of Harry Harrison or Regency Weird in the style of Jane Austen, but the story idea comes to me in those styles. I would struggle to write those ideas in styles other than the one I conceived them in. The stories I've recently completely plotted are in different styles and genres - one Arthur C. Clarke-esque style sci-fi, one King-style horror (superficially similar to Cujo), a Donaldson-style historical fantasy, and so on. It's less that I'm doing a direct pastiche of these authors, it's more the tone and feel, which is an element of style rather than idea.

Or, to blend the two things together, I would call it the story concept, which is a mix of both idea and style.

Very interesting! To have style interwoven in the generation of a story. That would require being very familiar with the style.

 

[Naomasa298]

Very interesting! To have style interwoven in the generation of a story. That would require being very familiar with the style.

Yes, or at least having a good visualisation of it. But you don't need a complete understanding of the nuance of the style, since you would (and should) usually develop the style in your own direction, unless you're aiming for as close a pastiche as possible. I often am, but not always - I often try to replicate the atmosphere of the style, not necessarily all the nuances.