CTP (S3E128) How Writing Styles Shape What You Read (Books/AuthorsWeeks leftover)

CTP (S3E128) How Writing Styles Shape What You Read (Books/AuthorsWeeks leftover)
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
We pull apart the difference between genre and writing style, from strict, edited prose to loose, modern voices. We show how dialogue density, narrative focus, and form—journal entries, pure narration, experimental structures—shape reader expectations and joy.
• genres contrasted with writing styles and why it matters
• role of Oxford, AP and Chicago style guides
• modern voice choices including slang for authenticity
• dialogue-light versus dialogue-heavy storytelling
• narrative-only and journal-entry formats explained
• length types from short story to extended novel
• how to choose books by style, not hype
• pointers to resources for aspiring writers
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You find all my books on Amazon, or if you want autographed copies, hey, Christmas is coming - see: https://JosephMLenard.us/shop

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Theme: Writing Styles
• 0:52 Genres Versus Styles Explained
• 2:28 Traditional Editing And Style Guides
• 5:20 Modern Voice: Slang And Realism
• 8:20 Dialogue Levels And Reader Expectations
• 12:10 Narrative-Only And Journal Entry Formats
• 15:10 Lengths: Short Story To “Novel EXT”
• 18:05 Matching Strange Stories With Strange Forms
• 20:20 How To Pick Books By Style
• 21:50 Where To Find The Books And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the 52 hours Out of this podcast, a K A T T P. I'm your host, Joseph M. Leyer, and that's L-E-N-A-R-D. T T P is your no must, no plus, just me, you, and an occasional guest, type podcast. Really appreciate you tuning in. Graham Norton will say, let's get out of the show. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Books, Authors Weeks. I had Health Weeks in February 2025. I had a Music Weeks, three of those in the month of March 2025. So hi gang. You've heard me say this before. This show is gonna be a little odd. Um and I hope I'll be able to remember to cover everything. Books, authors, weeks in October. I'm not sure if this is gonna be part of it or a leftover later, so I'm saying it's a it depends on all the authors I do have to fit in or not fit in. But this is about books in general, writing styles specifically. Okay, if you don't want to hear me talk about my books again, tune out. Okay, but but but but but but but but before you do, here's I'm using my books as examples. I could use other people's books as examples, uh, but it's obviously just easy. I'm doing this not to try to push my books on you, though. Yes, please, I hope you'll buy one or more. Uh but by way of example, writing styles, what is your pref preference? Now there are genres, just like movies, right? There's sci-fi, there's fantasy, there's drama, there's uh thrillers, there's horror, right? I'm not talking genres, although I've written in different genres. Uh I'm talking writing styles. Now, by way of example, my first international book, Terror Strikes Coming Soon to a City New You, is more traditionally written style-wise. I hired an editor that indeed was very much Oxford English kind of trained, right? And I uh made I allowed him to impose and force upon me the stricter Oxford styling guides, outlines, uh, rules, regulations. They're not laws, you can break them, right? But suggested rules. And also you recall I did a show, I'm not Shakespeare, right? Even Antara Strikes Coming Soon to sit near you. If you're looking for Dickens, Hemingway, or Shakespeare, you're barking up the wrong tree. And that's true of most authors these days, though, indeed, we generally all hire editors to keep us at least from going completely off the rails of either the AP, Chicago, or Oxford writing styling guides, so that there's at least in most books formal English for the most part to a degree, right? It's not completely wild. Um although like in the book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem, I use words again, a little more loose writing style by way of example within my own bodies of works. I use gonna and wanna. Why? Because Kennedy, the female lead, is a young lady in the modern world, and frankly, language is looser these days, and those words generally are used. So I wrote in a modern way for the modern times about a modern girl figuring out her place in this world as it is, not as it was, not as it may be, although there is a degree in the book of Kennedy Project Carpentum about indeed trying to sew good and more positivity. Hopefully, how it could be better. But I think you understand what I'm saying here, right? The hearing now times. But indeed, a lot of writers indeed do still, even though they clearly aren't Shakespeare either, they're not writing in Shakespearean prose. They do want to still try and adhere to the letter of the rules. Uh, that's why they have an editor to enforce them of either the AP Chicago or Oxford style guides. I, in my more recent books, let my style flag fly a little more, so to speak, right? A little more loose than the formality from terror strikes coming soon to the city near you. And the next fiction book, now terror strikes, historical fiction, right? That's genre-ish, or as I say, aka faction, part fact, part fiction. And beyond that, I did how to write a book and get it published to help others write, or if you don't intend to ever write your own book and publish your own books, how to write a book, let me grab that and hold it up, helps you to understand what authors go through. So you have a copy of Terror Strikes Coming Through to a City New. What did Joseph M. Leonard go through to put this book together and you be able to buy it? Right? And beyond that, I think my constitutionalist politics series, now up to four, is nonfiction. So that's a whole other thing and a whole other at times potentially writing style. But back to style, like terror strikes again. I got a review from a woman who said, not enough dialogue. Well, never in any of the interviews had I ever given, or does it say in the description, hey, there's a lot of dialogue in here. I didn't missell it. She misunderstood what it was she was buying. She made an assumption for I don't know why, but she made an assumption and she preferred a lot of dialogue, and there was not enough to her liking in it. But there was dialogue in it. Narration style with some dialogue, a writing style, right? That book was that kind of style. Another woman, thankfully, came to kind of came to my defense and wrote a competing review, and indeed said, where did he ever say it was full of dialogue? And she mentioned the Great Gatsby and uh other books. Like some books have uh one she mentioned, I don't remember what was the Great Gatsby. Frankly, I didn't read that book, so I don't know. But a book that is all dialogue, now to me, that would be dialogue overload. I I wouldn't, I don't like that. I don't like a ton of dialogue, but that's just me, that may not be you. And I don't want to sell you a book that isn't what you're looking for, and that's to understand the writers in the different stylings, though I'm making the point here, my various books are all different writing styles, even within my own works. Terror strikes narrative with some dialogue. But the competing reviewer said, yeah, he never said there'd be a ton of dialogue. So that's sorry, that was kind of on you. Uh and you know, I'm sorry, I wish you would have gotten what you wanted, but what did you think of the story? What about the substance of the story? That's you know, a valid critique that I preferred a lot of dialogue, and there wasn't. Okay, legitimate criticism of your opinion so others understand what they're getting. Valid point to make, but what did you think of the substance of the story? Like the book of Kennedy, and I even say it on the back about my Terror Strikes book, does not have one line of dialogue in it. Period. That's another writing style, right? It's a traditional narrative style, tale telling. Not one lick of dialogue in it, though. That's a little unusual. Usually a book has some dialogue in it, but this has none. And I want people to know what they're getting up front. Another type of writing style, like a short story, a lasting legacy, and the title itself is a bit of an oxymoron. It says a short story right there. For those looking behind the scenes on the video, it says right on the cover, I'm holding up a short story. It's a novelette. So is the book of Kennedy. These are both novelettes. Why? Because I wanted to keep the word count down, the page count down, and therefore, most importantly, the cost to the consumer down. I understand after four years of double-digit inflation, that no one's cost of living adjustments or work employer raises kept up with that. We've all lost buying power, we've all lost disposable income to be able to spend on things like books, entertain or you know, entertainment. So I wanted to keep the cost down. But the point I was getting at a short story, a lasting legacy, a novelette, not a short story. There's right, there's novella, there's short stories, there's an and I'll get into that later. Novellas, novelettes, full novels, like terror strikes, a full and complete novel. And then I even invented the term novel X, EXT for extended, bigger than a novel, like War and Peace to me would be a novel X. It's an extended novel above and beyond the regular sizes of a novel. But a lasting legacy is written in yet another style. Not it's still narrative, and there is dialogue, but not till the very end. Very, very little, next to none. In uh let me hold up the uh hardcover. This is the hardcover copy look, a short story, lasting legacy. Again, a short story, it's a novel, that is a bit of a misnomer, is written in journal entry style, by which I mean in here, each chapter, except for the end, uh, is as if Ryan, the lead character, has written a journal or a diary entry, and that is shared with you to tell the tale. That's another writing style. And you may not like, you may love that, you'll love this book. You may not like that style, don't buy that book. I don't want to sell you something you're not gonna be potentially happy with, right? So I've written different things in different styles, different ways on purpose, in order to introduce fair works, books, uh, works of writing in the different styles to attract different audiences. If you love one book, doesn't mean you're gonna love every book. And if you hate one book, like you buy a lasting legacy, not reading the description that says it's journal entries and you hate it, doesn't mean you're gonna dislike all my other books. You may love terror strikes coming soon to a city because it's completely different writing style. And then lastly, a short story, another type, uh size. Again, short stories, novellas, novelette, novels, and then my invention, novel exts, right? Those are varying word count page sizes defined, and you can Google it. Um, and it'll tell you generally a short story is up to this many words and pages, a novella is this many words and pages, a novelite is between this many words and pages, and a novel is above that. And I dare say now, if you're over 500 pages, you're into novel X, novel EXT territory. But my last book, my latest, is, and it says it right in the title, a really short story. Is E.T. Really here? Actually, that's kind of backwards on the cover. The title is Is E.T. Really Here? The subtitle is a really short story, and it's in a very weird writing style. Way, way out of the norms that books norm and stories normally come. I wrote it in a strange fashion to tell a strange tale. So the style matches the strangeness of the story. So I just wanted as part of or later following up Books, Authors, Weeks on Christitutionalist Podcasts, running three weeks in October, or if this runs later, ran back in October for three weeks, books, authors weeks, Monday through Friday drops for three weeks, uh, to explain how a little bit more, a little more behind the scenes of writing and publishing. So those who are not normal avid readers understand this maybe now a little more and might be interested in particular books of a particular writing style over another, and now know the difference. And you probably knew the difference, you probably just never really thought that long and hard about it. And this episode is going into all that to indeed verbally get the details out there, and I was gonna say in print, but unless I do a before it's news story follow-up to this, yeah, just verbally out there about written styles. Okay, I I hope I covered everything because I didn't take notes, and I wanted to use my books again. I hope joseph mleonard.us slash shop or Joseph M. Leonard, it's not French, it's Leonard without an O, but I have to go with the middle initial, Joseph M. Leonard, because there is a Joseph Lennard who's also a Christian author, and that's the other thing, the right kind of a genre. These aren't all pure Christian books. I have no intention of beating anyone over the head with the Bible, but yes, I consider myself a Christian writer, and Joseph Lennard out of South Carolina is absolutely more traditional Christian writer than even I am. And obviously, I'm a Christian writer if I've got four books out called Christitutionalist Politics. It's about Christian-based uh biblical community understanding of our Judeo-Christian foundations as a nation. Uh wanted to explain all that. Uh, so different writers write different ways, find one or two you like, or again, like me, know the difference in the styles of the books. You may or may not like one or another, josephmleonard.us slash shop, or I was giving to Joseph M. Leonard, of course, on Amazon. Joseph M. Leonard, Leonard without an O. You find all my books on Amazon, or if you want autographed copies, hey, Christmas is coming. If you want autographed copies of the book, maybe you're not a big reader, but you know someone is. Hey, John loves to read books. I'd like my name is Frank, but I want to buy books that Joe autographs personally for John, so I can give them for Christmas. At any rate, again, uh the point and purpose is not for me to try to push all my books on you, but they are great examples. They they really are, because again, they're in all different styles, and that's the point of this show. Writing styles, a follow-up. Yeah, I I've got four pieces on Before it's news, uh free tips and techniques outside of how to write a book and get it published hints, tips and techniques, where you can get some free uh hints, tips, and techniques. Tinyurl.com slash write and publish supplement. Tinyurl.com slash write and publish supplement two, write and publish supplement three, write and publish supplement four, and maybe I'll have Galaxy AI do an analysis of this video and put up write and publish supplement five. I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not absolutely promising I'll do that. I probably will. So that will be there then too. Thank you all. Take care. God bless. Love you all. Like and subscribe to Christitutional Politics Podcast and their episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned in for Christitutional Politics now. If you haven't already, please check out my primary international development for 50 million. Over time, I've got to nine up for now. Just 254. Oh yeah, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, Doctor.