A question has often been asked,
does a man write differently than a woman? September 22, 2013
I’d like to reframe the question, does one person write differently than another? Here, the answer is a definite yes. It’s called the author’s style. A good feeling for what I mean by style comes from recalling great authors like Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Harlan Coben. If you even read the tiniest of passages from them, perhaps with the help of context, you likely recognize their writing. (This is not author intrusion or showing off, but rather the vibrancy of a great artist applying his/her master strokes.)
It is true that any individual man would have more difficulty getting into the head of a woman and visa versa or more difficulty applying whole brain versus right brain problem solving techniques. BUT, not for the great authors. In my opinion, a great author has the ability to slip into any character’s mind and action and deliver a story we’ll never forget.
Just for fun who wrote these tiny, obscure snippets from best sellers? If you fail to get any, congratulations, you are normal. If you get all three, slow down, it is possible you may be reading ‘too’ much.
Who wrote? . . . he took her hand in his and she felt the way it warmed her the whole way back. (to her parent's home)
The answer to the above will be the subject of the attached video at the bottom of this blog post, but for the next two I’ll leave them without answers, unless you ask.
Who wrote? . . . and he pressed her hand lightly as he took it to place in Note’s. As he did so, the child moved within her, and she winced because the movement was so sudden and so firm.
Or? . . . He had her over a barrel, and he knew it. She took in the messy motor home, the surly teenager, and the fussing infant. Then she gazed at the big, roughneck of a man with his broad shoulders and devil’s smile. Did she want to stay on the run badly enough to put up with all this?
* * *
There’s something else all three of these snippets have in common. They’re all plain English. I believe the most important part of any individual style is clarity. It has to be, if readers don’t understand something they might start drifting. If they start drifting, they may stop reading. Great writers, male or female, retain large audiences.
I’d like to reframe the question, does one person write differently than another? Here, the answer is a definite yes. It’s called the author’s style. A good feeling for what I mean by style comes from recalling great authors like Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Harlan Coben. If you even read the tiniest of passages from them, perhaps with the help of context, you likely recognize their writing. (This is not author intrusion or showing off, but rather the vibrancy of a great artist applying his/her master strokes.)
It is true that any individual man would have more difficulty getting into the head of a woman and visa versa or more difficulty applying whole brain versus right brain problem solving techniques. BUT, not for the great authors. In my opinion, a great author has the ability to slip into any character’s mind and action and deliver a story we’ll never forget.
Just for fun who wrote these tiny, obscure snippets from best sellers? If you fail to get any, congratulations, you are normal. If you get all three, slow down, it is possible you may be reading ‘too’ much.
Who wrote? . . . he took her hand in his and she felt the way it warmed her the whole way back. (to her parent's home)
The answer to the above will be the subject of the attached video at the bottom of this blog post, but for the next two I’ll leave them without answers, unless you ask.
Who wrote? . . . and he pressed her hand lightly as he took it to place in Note’s. As he did so, the child moved within her, and she winced because the movement was so sudden and so firm.
Or? . . . He had her over a barrel, and he knew it. She took in the messy motor home, the surly teenager, and the fussing infant. Then she gazed at the big, roughneck of a man with his broad shoulders and devil’s smile. Did she want to stay on the run badly enough to put up with all this?
* * *
There’s something else all three of these snippets have in common. They’re all plain English. I believe the most important part of any individual style is clarity. It has to be, if readers don’t understand something they might start drifting. If they start drifting, they may stop reading. Great writers, male or female, retain large audiences.
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