[ookey]

I've recently begun writing a novel/story of my own. Ever since when I'm reading, I notice the writer's style even more than the content. I'll pay attention to how the characters are developed (dialog or narration, etc.), how the writer does descriptions, and so on. Does anyone else find themselves doing this besides simply reading the story for content and what will happen next?

What do you notice about other writers' styles when you are reading? What catches your attention?

The authors I've been reading lately that I find myself analyzing are Kay, Steinbeck, King, and Dickens. What are good authors for an aspiring writer to read I wonder?
Discuss
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[Vitriol]

Heinlein always strikes me as an excellent writer (even if some of his ideas are a bit off...).

[Cannon Fodder]

I would have said the opposite about Heinlein. Interesting ideas but I didn't like his style.

As for good writing styles, IMO, I've always found Stephen King to be incredibly readable even if the content isa bit tatty and I always found Robin Hobb's writing style to be very engaging.

[Barbarossa]

Stephen Brust, is a real master stylist in my opinion, especially since in some books (Phoenix guards, Freedom and necessity) he uses styles quite different from his more personal stuff. But even while imitataing for example Dumas he always keeps his own distinct voice at the same time.

[milamber_reborn]

I'm the same. Jordan has helped my writing significantly. I constantly find easy errors in his books, so i guess the editors miss some things because they're not interested in the books.

[garywassner]

It happens all the time. When I am writing, I cannot read! i pay no attention to the story and concentrate upon stylistic things only. I just finished writing the third book in a series i have been working on for the past three years, and as soon as I wrote the last words and read the manuscript over once, I started to read again - voraciously!!!

[JohnH]

Actually milamber you are assuming that the proofreaders take the same amount of time to proof the book that you do to read it. With computers, spellcheckers etc. this would hardly be the case. The more demand we place for immediate release the more errata the books will contain. It also seems that editors are playing a much different role than they used to. Not so much in terms of cutting down a work in size, but removing the redundant and awkward structuring that seems to be more prevalent in almost all fiction being released today, regardless of genre.

[milamber_reborn]

Give me an advance copy of a new book and i'll find errors for them all and they can pay me for it. Do they bother to edit an actual printed book, or are they happy that it won't be perfect?

[Bond]

I'm not a writer so I'm curious, what kind of computer programs do writers use? Do they still use MS Word and the like? I noticed before that once I created a document of about 20 pages my computer started to slow down greatly. Perhaps it was only because I had limited RAM but I still think if you write a long enough document performance will be impaired. My guess is that multiple documents are made. Still I remember when I was printing out 80 pages or so for a school project it took around 2 hours or more to print it all out and arrange everything for submission. I also noticed going back and forth correcting and updating the printed text and the soft copy was more tedious than I would have thought. What's the process from word processor to print?

[milamber_reborn]

Bond. Just finshed writing my first novel, almost 400 pages. I have an old computer but plenty of RAM. I've also tweaked my computer cahce settings so it usually preloads the document. As for printing, you need someone with a good laser printer with a paper tray. I'm going to paya professional printing place to print my manuscript (eg. Snap Printing in Australia). Mine is about 800 or so pages manuscript size, so it'll cost a bit. I use MS Word 97. A bit out of date, but i have a good grasp of grammar etc. MS Word XP is recommended for beginner writers i guess. Don't know about the pros.