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veqq  1mo ago (text post)   Edited 1mo ago   820 thread views

What's Good Writing to You?

Lately, I've proofread some friends' articles, native and not, on political and technical matters. In no case, did I only guide them to my preferred style (poetic diction, preferring verbs over nouns, participles over finite verbs, archaicizing, Germanic purist including V2, no hyphens) and rather enjoyed seeing, sampling (and rejecting) their distinct tastes. I once wanted to ask a friend who wields fiery invectives to liven up my (technical opinion) prose, but realized his style was ill-suited to sewing my bullet points together.

What is beautiful literature to you? Or clear and precise technical style? What do you just hate? Most importantly, what do you aim for and avoid when writing yourself?

I'm curious for opinions on all languages (even programming or e.g. programming code comment style) but naturally English is our community's shared tongue.

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When I read good writing I feel like I am learning. Maybe each paragraph contains a clever sentence structure or analogy, or the worldbuilding is fresh and new and developed well and has lasting implications on the rest of the story.

When I read great writing I feel like this hits on every level. Sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter, character to character, plot development to plot development, everything is thought out. Every piece of information, every word choice, every character's choice has a purpose and is trying to tell the reader something.

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