9 thoughts on “Style Envy

  1. Jim,
    Good point. I suffer from style envy with every Robert B Parker book I read. The same goes for Lee Child.
    One of the things I’ve come to accept is that I’ll never write like them. Then again, I’ll never have a 95+ mph fastball or be able to shoot subpar golf. So I’ll try to be content enjoying the work of those who do.

  2. My last case of style envy came while reading THE GHOST by Robert Harris (winner of the ITW Best Thriller Award 2008). I consider Mr. Harris a “big boy” writer, and few of us breath the same air he does.

  3. James Lee Burke. Reading his books always leaves me looking at my own stuff thinking, “Gee, mine sounds like crap.” *LOL* His narrative descriptions are absolute poetry. He can unobtrusively put you smack in the middle of the scene and leave you tasting and smelling it without making you think, “Gee, get on with the story already.”

    I always tell writers who ask me for advice to read everything of his as a starting point for how to do it the right way. I especially love how he handles first person pov and still imparts outside info you wouldn’t normally get from the standard first person pov. Amazing.

    I love Carl Hiaason for his humor. Maybe because I live in Florida and some of the stuff seems even funnier to me because I remember something similar from real life it was probably based on, but I love his twist on things.

  4. from a reader’s perspective, the passages you have selected remind me of an artist….the brush and palette type. they have painted a picture with their words. they have created characters and a setting that seem so real to all the senses….you can see, smell, taste, and feel what the author is trying to portray. rebecca wells had me wanting to head for the swimmin’ hole with a fishin’ pole in ‘the crowning glory of calla lilly ponder’. that is truly an art form. and in that spirit…here’s a non-professional suggestion…..”it was a dark and stormy night”…….

  5. I suffer from style envy all the time! I’m reading Carlos Ruiz Zafron right now (on the beach) and already I’m envious!

  6. My case of style envy . . .

    Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath, nuff said . . .

    Stephen King, he can scare me more in one sentence than most horror writers can in an entire book.

    Lisa Alther in ‘Kinflicks’. She is the funniest woman ever and writes the best unsexy sex scenes ever. They are gawky, awkward, absorbing, and decidedly unerotic. In other words, brilliant.

    Too many more to name! Terri

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