We hope you like our new direction
A friend emailed to tell me what she thought of the blog so far. She’s a very good friend and gave a very detailed critique; one thing she mentioned was that I appear to have two distinct writing styles. I’m using two distinct formats, present tense for the main narrative and past for reminiscences, but that’s not what she meant. She singled out a couple of passages, one more (for want of a better word) wordy, the other punchier, with shorter sentences. She’s right to say that there are two different styles present; the difference is in their ages.
The older style, although waffly, is more journalistic as it lacks emotion; essentially it’s a sequence of events. In recent years, I’ve made a conscious decision to address my emotions rather than every detail of a situation. I also like to address the reader (“you”) to increase the storytelling aspect. I realise this is actually a common practice in children’s books, but I think taking the reader into my confidence (“Remember when…”,”Have you ever…” etc) - and writing in the present tense - should give a much more immediate feel. I think the shorter sentences I’ve been using lately come from that desire to engage - to tell you a story.
