Style – Stephanie Hurt – Romance Author

When you start a new manuscript your mind is on the content. Which it should be, but there comes a time when you have to polish the writing. A time to create a cover that will represent your words.

A big polish is the editing. Is it important? Well, yes. If you just write the book and publish it without going back over it, that would be writers suicide. I’ve found throughout my short writing experience that the first read through after finishing a manuscript usually prompts changes, additional wording and even total chapter eliminations. It can really open your eyes for character changes and minor tweaks.

After the editing is done, are you happy? If you are like a lot of writer you may never be completely happy with your work. I know I’m my worst critic. I over analyse my work. Even after it is published I’m constantly saying “I wish I would have written that part differently.” My editor just shakes her head and laughs at me. I can’t help it, I can be a worrier.

Then you have the almost impossible task of writing a paragraph that will sum up the whole book. How on earth do you describe your book in just a couple of words? This is harder than writing the whole book. If you don’t say just the right thing will people even give it a second look? Will you be able to express the real feeling of the way the book should be perceived? The next time you read the back of a book, remember the author had only so many words to describe their whole piece of work, don’t judge a book by it’s description.

Also, sometimes don’t judge a book by it’s cover. When you select your cover art you have to put into one cover the whole feeling of the book. If you write romance you have to express a feeling pulled from the book into the cover. If you write horror you have to put some of the fear into the cover to pull in the reader. But you have to be careful not to show the end results of the book. You have to leave some mystery.

Well, that’s just a few of my writing ramblings. Maybe some of this helped you, maybe not. It’s just the opinions of one writer.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you!

You’re probably saying to yourself, what? I was going through my manuscripts that are in the works and was surprised at the varied topics. As I looked at them I thought about how different books can be. Just as with snowflakes, books can have so many different shapes, angles and looks.

You have so many genres. They include romance, children’s , christian, comedy, adult, science fiction, horror, and paranormal just to name a few. It’s amazing how many genres are out there now that weren’t available just a couple of years ago. If you have a certain thing you like, just Google and I bet you’ll find a book in that category.

Then you have the size. Books can be as short as 2500 words up to well the sky’s the limit. Books can be big in size or really small to where you can hold them in your palm. I’ve even seen different shaped books.

Well, then you get into the writing styles. Every writer has their own style. Some are more formal than others. Some have a dry style while others have a sweet style. It’s amazing when you pick up a book from a new author, whether it be a author that just jumped into the publishing world or one that is a veteran but you’ve never read from them, how different every author is. I’ve read some authors and been amazed at their descriptive abilities, but maybe read their second book and it was totally different. Some authors write many different genres. They jump from one to the other trying to make their mark in the publishing world.

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that books are like snowflakes. If everybody wrote the same way in the same genre it would be a boring world. In my opinion the world of reading and writing is changing everyday. Every day a new genre is born and a new style reader. So get reading and try a new genre. You might be surprised at how much you like it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you!