#writingstyle — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #writingstyle, aggregated by home.social.
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Steering Your Writing Voyage
Writers are inundated with advice books for writing better fiction. See which actually made me revise parts of my novel even late-game. A list of books by and about masters of the craft.https://nlbryar.page/2026/07/25/steering-your-writing-voyage/
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Steering Your Writing Voyage
Writers are inundated with advice books for writing better fiction. See which actually made me revise parts of my novel even late-game. A list of books by and about masters of the craft.https://nlbryar.page/2026/07/25/steering-your-writing-voyage/
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The Rise of the Em-Dash in Hacker News Comments
https://boazsobrado.com/blog/2026/04/15/the-rise-of-the-em-dash-in-hacker-news-comments/
#HackerNews #EmDash #HackerNews #Comments #WritingStyle #Typography
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The Rise of the Em-Dash in Hacker News Comments
https://boazsobrado.com/blog/2026/04/15/the-rise-of-the-em-dash-in-hacker-news-comments/
#HackerNews #EmDash #HackerNews #Comments #WritingStyle #Typography
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New accounts on HN 10x more likely to use EM-dashes
https://www.marginalia.nu/weird-ai-crap/hn/
#HackerNews #NewAccounts #HN #EMdashes #AITrends #HackerNews #WritingStyle
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New accounts on HN 10x more likely to use EM-dashes
https://www.marginalia.nu/weird-ai-crap/hn/
#HackerNews #NewAccounts #HN #EMdashes #AITrends #HackerNews #WritingStyle
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https://www.storyangles.com/post/minimalism-vs-maximalism-in-writing
In writing styles, two opposing approaches steal the spotlight: minimalism and maximalism.
Sparse prose or elaborate descriptions? See how they stack up against each other.#minimalism #maximalism #writingstyle #StoryAngles #fiction #writingcommunity #writer
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https://www.storyangles.com/post/minimalism-vs-maximalism-in-writing
In writing styles, two opposing approaches steal the spotlight: minimalism and maximalism.
Sparse prose or elaborate descriptions? See how they stack up against each other.#minimalism #maximalism #writingstyle #StoryAngles #fiction #writingcommunity #writer
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Kind of sad about reviewing my book on writing style of 10 years ago and finding out all I learned from it (yes, including the em-dash and antithesis) is all that AI has hijacked. I'm trying hard to ignore it, but I keep wondering what's worth adapting and what's worth rebelling for.
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Kind of sad about reviewing my book on writing style of 10 years ago and finding out all I learned from it (yes, including the em-dash and antithesis) is all that AI has hijacked. I'm trying hard to ignore it, but I keep wondering what's worth adapting and what's worth rebelling for.
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On the keyboard today, I bash out a small rant about Acronyms
They are great, as they save unnecessary repetition, but bear in mind that assumption is a foolish thing when writing.
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On the keyboard today, I bash out a small rant about Acronyms
They are great, as they save unnecessary repetition, but bear in mind that assumption is a foolish thing when writing.
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Human writers have always used the em dash
#HackerNews #HumanWriters #EmDash #WritingStyle #AIChatGPT #LanguageEvolution
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Human writers have always used the em dash
#HackerNews #HumanWriters #EmDash #WritingStyle #AIChatGPT #LanguageEvolution
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Question: you're a person that use a day-first date when writing — Do you use a leading zero for days less than 10?
05 November 1955 vs 5 November 1955
Does your decision change when using the 3-letter month abbreviations?
05 Nov 1955 vs 5 Nov 1955
NOTE: all numeric dates (e.g. 5.11.1955) are not considered.
Rock the vote. Please boost for reach.
Pick two.
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Question: you're a person that use a day-first date when writing — Do you use a leading zero for days less than 10?
05 November 1955 vs 5 November 1955
Does your decision change when using the 3-letter month abbreviations?
05 Nov 1955 vs 5 Nov 1955
NOTE: all numeric dates (e.g. 5.11.1955) are not considered.
Rock the vote. Please boost for reach.
Pick two.
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Stop Persuading Your Readers
Most writers misunderstand their purpose Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »
https://writingcooperative.com/stop-persuading-your-readers-a232bf60892#persuasion #purpose #writingstyle #writerspurpose #writing
@indieauthors -
Stop Persuading Your Readers
Most writers misunderstand their purpose Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »
https://writingcooperative.com/stop-persuading-your-readers-a232bf60892#persuasion #purpose #writingstyle #writerspurpose #writing
@indieauthors -
Learn the tells of AI writing: em dashes, rule of three, bullet points, and more.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=0lmGvlbBoFNyCoHG&v=9Ch4a6ffPZY&feature=youtu.be
#AIwriting #GenerativeAI #WritingStyle #LLMs #AIwritingStyle #Shibboleths #RuleOfThree #EmDashes
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Learn the tells of AI writing: em dashes, rule of three, bullet points, and more.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=0lmGvlbBoFNyCoHG&v=9Ch4a6ffPZY&feature=youtu.be
#AIwriting #GenerativeAI #WritingStyle #LLMs #AIwritingStyle #Shibboleths #RuleOfThree #EmDashes
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Reproducing Hacker News writing style fingerprinting
#HackerNews #Reproducing #Hacker #News #writing #style #fingerprinting #HackerNews #WritingStyle #Fingerprinting #TechCommunity #DataAnalysis
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Reproducing Hacker News writing style fingerprinting
#HackerNews #Reproducing #Hacker #News #writing #style #fingerprinting #HackerNews #WritingStyle #Fingerprinting #TechCommunity #DataAnalysis
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#AmReading Sally Rooney's Intermezzo. I don't like the #writingstyle no matter what she is trying to do with it. Nor did I like the characters. But I was drawn into this too long novel by the relationships. Rooney manoeuvres the reader through the complexities of relationships of all kinds - sibling, parental, intimate, immigrant, neurodiverse, intergenerational, friend, and adversary. This is what makes it a good read IMHO.
#books #bookstodon #literature #LiteraryFiction #Ireland #writers
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#AmReading Sally Rooney's Intermezzo. I don't like the #writingstyle no matter what she is trying to do with it. Nor did I like the characters. But I was drawn into this too long novel by the relationships. Rooney manoeuvres the reader through the complexities of relationships of all kinds - sibling, parental, intimate, immigrant, neurodiverse, intergenerational, friend, and adversary. This is what makes it a good read IMHO.
#books #bookstodon #literature #LiteraryFiction #Ireland #writers
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The incautious reader might well think that all of those things went into the bag with the pork. But let's say (because I know what I mean to say, here) that those are served with the pork.
"Ingredients include a cup of rice, a handful of beans and a marinated pork roast that's sat for at least 24 hours in a plastic bag with orange juice."
The only things in that bag are the pork and the juice. (That's a very sad marinade indeed.)
2/2
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Something I'm seeing lately that I know isn't touched on in most GenEd English comp classes is the nicety of putting the longer phrase/clause at the end of a list of such things.
It's especially nice if there's not a serial comma. Here's what I mean.
"Ingredients include a marinated pork roast that's sat for at least 24 hours in a plastic bag with orange juice, a cup of rice and a handful of beans."
Just what's in that bag, eh? 1/n
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#Design #References
UX Language · Copywriting and style guidelines for product designers https://ilo.im/15y2dp_____
#UX #Language #CopyWriting #WritingStyle #VoiceAndTone #Content #ProductDesign #UiDesign #UxDesign #WebDesign -
#Design #References
UX Language · Copywriting and style guidelines for product designers https://ilo.im/15y2dp_____
#UX #Language #CopyWriting #WritingStyle #VoiceAndTone #Content #ProductDesign #UiDesign #UxDesign #WebDesign -
In the latest issue of Brevity, Sila Hansen pens a lovely flash craft essay (short essay on design) on an important aspect of good writing: "Against Being Good."
"For the same several years, I have failed miserably at writing this essay. I couldn’t figure out why. It felt dishonest, even when everything I wrote was “true.” I’ve put it aside and restarted it dozens of times..."
https://brevitymag.com/current-issue/against-being-good/
#writing #queerwriting #transwriting #narrativedesign #voice #writingstyle
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#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
LZZY HALE On Impostor Syndrome Battle & Embracing Her Writing Style: "That's What Makes Me Myself"
"You make a noise until you like it, and then keep making that noise. It's that simple, and that complicated."#LzzyHale #ImpostorSyndrome #WritingStyle #SelfAcceptance #EmbracingYourself #ArtisticExpression #BeYourself #NoNeedForValidation
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#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
LZZY HALE On Impostor Syndrome Battle & Embracing Her Writing Style: "That's What Makes Me Myself"
"You make a noise until you like it, and then keep making that noise. It's that simple, and that complicated."#LzzyHale #ImpostorSyndrome #WritingStyle #SelfAcceptance #EmbracingYourself #ArtisticExpression #BeYourself #NoNeedForValidation
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Curious about a style item I saw in a book this week. Would you prefer "Me Too" or "#MeToo" in reference to the movement?
#writing #WritingCommunity #reading #editing #copyediting #editor #WritingStyle #EnglishUsage
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Curious about a style item I saw in a book this week. Would you prefer "Me Too" or "#MeToo" in reference to the movement?
#writing #WritingCommunity #reading #editing #copyediting #editor #WritingStyle #EnglishUsage
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What an atrocious style requirement!
"Note: The Vietnamese words in the original version of this essay used diacritical marks. To comply with New York Times style, the marks were removed before publication.
Unfortunately, this practice alters the meaning of the words. In the case of Hỏa Lò Prison, for example, “hỏa” means “fire,” and “lò” means “furnace”: the Burning Furnace Prison. Without the marks, “hoa” means “flowers,” and “lo” means “worry,” rendering the term “Hoa Lo” meaningless. I look forward to the day when The Times and other Western publications celebrate the richness and complexity of Vietnamese, and of all other languages, by showcasing them in their original formats."
NYT: Read Your Way Through Hanoi
Hat tip to Jeffrey Zuckerman on Bluesky (@jmz.bsky.social)
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What an atrocious style requirement!
"Note: The Vietnamese words in the original version of this essay used diacritical marks. To comply with New York Times style, the marks were removed before publication.
Unfortunately, this practice alters the meaning of the words. In the case of Hỏa Lò Prison, for example, “hỏa” means “fire,” and “lò” means “furnace”: the Burning Furnace Prison. Without the marks, “hoa” means “flowers,” and “lo” means “worry,” rendering the term “Hoa Lo” meaningless. I look forward to the day when The Times and other Western publications celebrate the richness and complexity of Vietnamese, and of all other languages, by showcasing them in their original formats."
NYT: Read Your Way Through Hanoi
Hat tip to Jeffrey Zuckerman on Bluesky (@jmz.bsky.social)
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"The first rule of style is to have something to say. The second rule of style is to control yourself when, by chance, you have two things to say; say first one, then the other, not both at the same time." (Re-found when browsing Polya's classic and marvellous book on mathematical problem-solving, "How To Solve It".) #math #maths #mathstodon #WritingStyle
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More about creative nonfiction, the craft of combining factual accounts with literary elements.
#creativenonfiction #nonfiction #writingstyle #writinghttps://blog.reedsy.com/guide/creative-writing/creative-nonfiction/
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People today: I met this guy, he was average
Victorians: He was, in the way of most men, possessed of a rudimentary intelligence, his countenance ordinary, his bearing mild, with some weakness about the shoulders, his hair the colour of ash; he spoke of the weather
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The electrifying moment: Peter Temple on writing
Ask me to name my favourite writer in a given genre – science fiction, thriller, horror – and I would usually struggle to whittle it down beyond a shifting shortlist. But ask me my favourite contemporary crime writer, and I settle readily on the name Peter Temple (1946–2018).
Why Temple? There’s his style and language, stripped down and surprising; his pitch-perfect dialogue that puts you right into his world; his dark wit and playful metaphors, so satisfying to my Irish tastes; his gloomy, uncompromising stories, with their shards of love and beauty.
I discovered him late, years after his last novel was published in 2009. But he started late (his debut was published when he was almost 50 years old), and he completed nine. So it didn’t take me long to catch up, though I spaced them out to postpone the day when I’d have no more to discover.*
In his posthumous collection The Red Hand: Stories, Reflections and the Last Appearance of Jack Irish (Irish is the protagonist of four Temple novels, an unfinished one, and an adapted TV series), Temple describes his unlikely late blossoming with a mix of self-deprecation and alienation:
I never had the feeling of having a career. I was just waiting for my vocation to announce itself. And one day I began writing and it did.
It’s not that writing comes easily to me. Being stuck is the rule, not the exception. In fact, for me writing is one long attempt to become unstuck. I move from one impasse to another. Most of the time, I am convinced that the whole enterprise is a mistake and doomed.
This kind of anxiety would be acceptable if I believed I was creating art, but I don’t, and that knowledge serves to make matters worse. An ordinary sentence, like an ordinary piece of joinery, isn’t dignified by the time it took to make.
The simile is deliberate: woodwork is a recurring activity in several of Temple’s books, and I suspect he practised it himself at least sometime in his life.
His muse is elusive and fleeting:
I’ve also found that inspiration isn’t something that lasts beyond a paragraph or two. Creative rushes are also to be distrusted. It’s the passages that flowed from your fingertips that you have to axe the next day.
The ideas I have for books are also much too vague and ephemeral to be called inspirations. For me, they take the form of images and the feelings that come with them, scenes seen and imagined, usually unconnected, isolated, not part of any narrative. I’ve usually forgotten them by chapter three.
Before leaving his native South Africa for Australia in 1979 and turning his hand to crime fiction, Temple worked in journalism and academia. I detect in his prose some of the former but little of the latter, except perhaps the struggle with structure:
I must confess to hating plotting. I like travelling without a map, falling into holes, straying down dark alleys into cul-de-sacs, waiting for the electrifying moment when the story wants to tell itself to me, when characters turn their faces to me and speak.
When they do speak, his ear is ready:
Another important thing that happened to me was a friend’s mother introducing me to reading plays. If I have any ability to write dialogue, it comes from reading at least thirty volumes of Best American Short Plays. This worthy annual introduced me to Tennessee Williams, Albee, Odets, Miller, Mamet, Wilder. I still love reading plays and revere no writer more than the British minimalist Harold Pinter.
He not only appreciated but applied that minimalism. His books are not slim but their stories are elliptical, requiring more investment than most, and perhaps more perseverance, depending on your tastes. After Truth won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2010, Temple said in his address:
To the dismay of my publishers and many readers I have been concerned to put language under pressure. To compress it into little bits that cease to squeak and then to put back in only so many words as are needed to restore meaning. My defence in this is that I have been encouraged by my adopted country’s ingrained habits of expression. Of saying as little as possible in dealing with one another.
That style also manifests in the popular Australian practice of clipped words (like bikie, relly, servo, tradie, and ute), which Temple used in his novels. The Red Hand includes a 10-page glossary (‘Tradies Wear Sunnies and Blunnies’) written for American publishers.
One last excerpt from the collection, quoting his Miles Franklin talk:
There are only a few stories available to us. But there are countless variations. Stories are valuable only and in proportion to the gifts that the storyteller brings to them. I don’t know if I have any gifts. I can only say that I’ve loved words. They haven’t loved me back but I’ve tried to do justice to the language and to its infinite malleability. But my God, I have tested that malleability in my time.
If you haven’t read Peter Temple and want a flavour of his fiction, this thread on Twitter contains a scattering of lines from his books, such as the Chandleresque ‘He eyed me like a dog show judge‘ and ‘His face was mostly nose, spread over it like a frog.‘
I’ve also featured a couple of Temple’s novels in book spine poems: Truth in ‘Useless Crazy Heart‘, and The Broken Shore in ‘A Quiet Life‘.
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* Filmmaker John Waters, in his memoir Role Models, confessed to leaving unread one book by his beloved Ivy Compton-Burnett:
#AustralianEnglish #AustralianLiterature #books #crimeFiction #inspiration #JohnWaters #literature #metaphor #PeterTemple #reading #storytelling #writers #writing #writingStyleHer last spoken words before death? “Leave me alone.” I have to. I have all twenty of her novels and I’ve read nineteen. If I read the one that is left there will be no more Ivy Compton-Burnett for me and I will probably have to die myself.