Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Why is it that two different writers could write in the same genre, write about the same ideas, plot devices and themes yet one writer creates beautiful prose while the other makes the reader never want to read again?

Every time I write a chunk of prose that really sings through the initial first draft, I feel good about myself…until I go back the next day and read it only to find it full of errors and downright horrible writing.  What we are discussing here is the one wrench in the writer’s toolbox that means more to a reader than one would think: style.

Style is the distinctive, formal, or characteristic manner of expression in words.  It is not what is written but how it is written, how the words form ideas or images on the page.  But what if your style is soft and weak like a jellyfish?  What if…