When I wrote How to Write Westerns for the Modern Reader it was intended to be just that, a kind of how-to book for authors who were interested in penning a book in the western genre that would appeal to the generation of readers born after 1990, or thereabouts. In that book, I wrote about the structure of the western novel (or novella or short story), some of the historical elements that make westerns resonant with a generation that didn’t grow up reading the western paperbacks or watching the TV westerns that we older readers had access to.
It occurred to me, though, that the things in that book can apply to other genres as well, but there is even more to writing that appeals to a multi-generational audience than just types of plots, vocabulary, etc. There’s also the matter of writing style. That, I am well aware, is like entering a minefield because every writer has his or her own unique style and with the large and fragile egos that most writers have, when you start to analyze style you risk some blowback. I will nevertheless enter that minefield, armed with over six decades of published writing experience, eight years of teaching professional writing to a select group of college seniors, four years of teaching foreigners to speak, understand, read, and write English, and several years of experience as a first reader for an Australian publisher and as a book reviewer.
First of all, just what is writing style? It’s choice of words, sentence, and paragraph structure that a writer uses to convey meaning. Each of us has our own distinctive style based on voice, personality, tone, and grammatical choices.
It’s been my experience, though, that certain choices are more effective than others in conveying shades of meaning, or in earning the trust of readers—regardless of their generation. In the follo0wing paragraphs, I share some of the more important stylistic choices that each writer can still further modify to reflect his or her unique voice. These helpful hints have worked well for me and for legions of other writers. They are not ironclad laws, however, but just suggestions for you to consider as you create your story.
Point of View
Point of view, or POV in writer’s shorthand, is the angle or perspective from which a story is told. In other words, it is the eyes of the character through which the reader sees the story unfold, or the person who is telling the story. There are a number of POVs from which a story can be told, and it’s up to the author to decide. But there are some guidelines that authors ignore at their own peril. One of the most frequently encountered in amateur writers, and the most annoying personally for me, is what is known as ‘head hopping.’ This is where the POV jumps from one character to another within a chapter: sometimes within the same paragraph. Unless the book is being told by the omniscient narrator (not one of the story’s characters), this should be avoided. So, let’s look at some of the types of POV.
First Person POV: The narrator is telling the story from his or her own perspective, using ‘I’ and ‘we,’ which gives the reader direct access to the POV character’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences (but not other characters).
Second Person POV: A seldom used and tricky POV is second person, which is told from the reader’s perspective, using ‘you.’
Third Person Limited POV: From the perspective of one character at a time, using ‘he’ and ‘she’. The reader only knows what this character knows. This is one of the most common POVs and the one in which amateurs head hop, which should be avoided. If two or more characters or in a scene the reader can only ‘know’ what the POV character knows or is thinking or feeling. For other characters in the scene, the author should ‘show’ not ‘tell.’ More on ‘show versus tell,’ later.
Third Person Omniscient POV: The story’s narrator knows everything about all of the characters and events and can share any of their thoughts or feelings. This can be a confusing POV, though, if the story has many characters, and I’ve found it not really suitable for action stories like westerns or thrillers.
Whichever POV you chose, be consistent. Don’t mix or switch. Your reader will be confused, and probably not want to read anything else you write.
Show don’t Tell
Novice writers have a tendency to ‘tell’ the reader everything. In every course on fiction writing one of the first injunctions is ‘show don’t tell.’ This allows the reader to experience the story and characters through thoughts, actions, sensory details, and feelings rather than direct exposition. Showing puts the reader ‘in the room’ with the characters and helps in achieving the sine qua non of fiction, suspension of disbelief. Following are some examples of showing and not telling.
Tell: John was scared.
Showing:
First person POV: My legs were rubbery, and I was having trouble breathing.
Second person POV: You looked as pale as old parchment, and I thought you were going to faint.
Third person limited POV: John’s face turned pale, and his eyes were as round as saucers.
Third person omniscient POV: John turned pale and began to breath rapidly. Mary knew that he was afraid.
Simple examples but I think they get the point across. If you want your reader to go along with you on your journey, you must make them see, feel, smell, taste, etc., what’s happening. If you spell everything out in excruciating detail, the reader quickly becomes aware of being a quiescent receptacle of information and is likely to tune you out.
Be careful with use of Stereotypes
Stereotypes are generalized beliefs about particular categories of people or cultures and are frequently used in fiction to provide conflict for your main character, establish new worlds or cultures, base characters on archetypes, or make characters easy to write. The problem with this is that unless care is taken in using stereotypes a writer risks misrepresenting a category of people causing harm to those in that category and can create a boring, homogenous element that turns readers off. I’ve found this to be particularly true of the western genre, which is a uniquely American genre that as written literature began in the 19th century and as a film genre in the early 20th century, during a time when certain ethnic and gender stereotypes were commonly accepted. This carried down to the late 20th century and, in some instances, even into the 21st, so that in westerns you still find the lazy, duplicitous Mexican, the Native American who is either a bloodthirsty savage or the noble savage who says ‘get-um up Scout,’ the Black who is always happy, dancing, bowing and scraping and is only a servant or enslaved person whose English comes straight from a vaudeville blackface routine, and women who are either prostitutes, long-suffering farm or ranch wives, widows, or fainting weaklings who can’t make a move without a man. These are not only harmful stereotypes that should be avoided in your fiction, but they are also inaccurate as a general description.
Watch your language
If you think this section is an injunction to swear off swear words, you’re wrong. People curse. In the wild west not so much, despite the HBO series Deadwood, but they had their moments. In westerns, too much really blue language should be avoided, but that was covered in my book, so go out and buy it and you’ll learn all you need to know about use of profanity in westerns.
What I’m talking about here, though, is the appropriate words and phrases for the setting of your story. If you have characters in the old west or the revolutionary period—or even earlier—using words and phrases that weren’t even coined until the 1950s or later, most of your readers will notice and call you out on it. Having a cowhand say ‘cool dude’ is a no-no. Do the research and make sure that things your characters say are the things they would’ve said during the period about which you’re writing.
Narrative
A final hint to make your fiction sing. Writing narrative. This is probably more important than you might think. The narrative, or storyline, is the sequence of events over time and space that your narrator is providing the reader. Too much narrative, or narrative that is uber-detailed can bore a reader. Too little narrative can leave a reader wondering what’s going on. The key is to try and strike the right balance. This is where re-reading what you write comes in handy. After you’ve written your story, let it cool off and then read it as if you’re seeing it for the first time. That’s when you make fixes—to everything, but especially to the narrative. One last thing before I let you go. Unless you’re writing a first person POV story, don’t use dialect in narrative. Write it in everyday, correct English.
Okay, that’s all for now. Go forth and create.
