Lessons From Gary Provost: Style

My dad is a lawyer. His profession compels him to write. One thing I learned observing my dad was his attitude to writing, from observing him, I learnt to read out loud and listen to the sound of one's words on paper. Words have life.

In chapter five of his book "100 ways to improve your writing", Gary provost likens the art of writing to creating music. Gary likens words to sounds, and when your words are in harmony, a beauty is created. This is where style comes to play.

Gary provost outlines 10 ways to develop style in writing. I, however, reduced them to 9, merging Gary's 4th and 5th principles into one. I find them similar.

1. Think about style: Style is how we express our ideas in writing. While content deals with the message being passed across, style is how we choose to pass the message across. People might pick up a material to read for its content and drop it because the writer lacks style. Style helps your writing to be fascinating and intriguing regardless of the subject you're writing about or the issue you're addressing.
2. Listen to what you write: In the opening paragraph, I talked about my father and how he always reads aloud what he writes to listen to how it sounds. Allowing the words to talk and sing back at him to see if he has created harmony. Writing is like music. When you write, read it aloud, listen for dissonance. Listen to the words. Pick out sour words, change words that don't blend well within your writing.
3. Mimic spoken language: one reason a lot of people find academic writing boring is because it lacks a conversational approach. I am a student of Linguistic, however, I dislike syntax. I dread it. The textbooks could very well be written in Greek and Latin. Then, I found Andrew Carnie's "Syntax: A Generative Introduction" and found it easy to comprehend. His words felt as though he was in the room with me. This doesn't mean writing should be a replica of conversational speech, on the contrary. Your writing should give your reader a sense of conversation. Garnish it with the warmth of personal conversation.
4. Use varying sentence length and construction: Writing in short sentences and paragraphs is dope, however, it can bore the reader. Most short sentences stick with the basic principle sentence structure in language. This can be boring. Use short sentences, inculcate medium-length sentences and when you feel the reader can take it, introduce long sentences. It makes your writing look more professional, interesting and intriguing to read.
5. Write complete sentences: A complete sentence carries complete thought. Examples: My father is a lawyer. My brother lives in Canada. "My father", however, is not a complete sentence. It makes no sense. In the quest of writing complete sentences, also learn to infuse partial sentences that sound right within your writing. Use them sparingly and allow for the complete sentences surrounding them to give them meaning.
6. Show, don't tell: Remember my teacher, Ajemole Kayode from the introduction, how he likened writing to painting? One beautiful way to make your writing appealing is by using your words to paint a picture. This way, you're engaging the reader's mind, enabling him to think. Don't tell your reader what to see, think or feel, rather, allow them to see what, who, or where you're describing. This is not restricted to any form of writing.
7. Keep related words together: make sure you use words within the same family to avoid confusion. Keep the adjectives near the nouns they are describing. Keep the adverbs near the verbs they are modifying. This enables ease of flow in writing and in reading on the part of your reader.
8. Parallel construction: As a deliberate act of arranging words, sounds and sentences in a particular order. It shows the reader the similarity of information contained in the sentences. Sometimes, when done well and beautifully, the repetition of a sound can improve the music of one's writing to the ears of the reader and not bore them.
9. Don't force a personal style: In an interview, J. Cole talking about his rap style made a statement that style is necessarily formed. It is a compendium of who you are, the content of your music and who you've been listening to. The same applies to writing. Style isn't forced in writing. It is knotted to the content of your words and who you are as a person. And I'd love to add, who you've been learning from or what you've been reading.