Since starting a new writing job back in August, my writing style has had to undergo a rather significant adjustment.
My entire life, I’ve been criticized in my writing for being too vocabulary-heavy or using flowery language, if you will. I just friggen like words, and it’s hard to change something you’ve been doing for years.
My writing style got me into a little bit of trouble in university, but nothing significant. If anything, I found that some professors were in favour of the floofy language, while others were not. This certainly didn’t help matters, as it isn’t the easiest thing to change writing style each time you start a paper.
Then I entered the world of journalism, and boy, did things ever change. From day one, I was told to cut the excess language, to give people the most information in as few words as possible.
Sound like this would be easier, right? Who wouldn’t like being told to write less?
Alas, not so easy. Not when I’ve been writing a certain way since I was in grade school.
I’m definitely not going to say I’ve got the hang of journalistic writing, because I don’t, but I’m getting there. I enjoy writing here, on my blog, because I’m able to write a little more loosely than I do for journalism, if that makes sense.
I think it’s been a very beneficial learning experience, having to change my writing style, as frustrating as it can be at times. I think if you were to ask any successful writer about it, they would say the same thing.
One of the things about writing is that it’s so subjective. Someone may love your style, while another might think it’s terrible. There’s no set guideline for what makes a good writer, or for what good writing consists of. It’s pretty individualized, and I like that.
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