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tragic · 2015-03-02 · Original thread
Writing is a bit like code. (Or perhaps that's the other way around.) The real work is not typing, but organisation of the material, creating a structure of exposition - what you could crudely call 'design'.

As I understand it, King's approach is to sort of design as you go, ie, he finds the plot and discovers characters just by writing one damn word after another until they sort of fall out of the manuscript page. It works for him.

On the other end of the scale, you have something like Robert McKee's book[0], which is all about meticulously drawing out plot arcs on index cards and sticky notes. (In fact, it's basically an academic introduction to formalist narrative theory, cunningly disguised as a screenwriting manual.)

You will find many evangelists for each of those approaches, and of course any and all points in between. YMMV. The point is: the alternative approaches are in the main about the high level problems of organising an extended piece of writing. 'Style' would be more a matter of word choices, syntax, rhythm - the quality of the prose. On that, everyone agrees that clichés are usually A Bad Thing, and not much else.

Anyone who claims to have discovered an objective standard of 'good prose' is selling you snake-oil; there is no definition of the former that includes both Dickens and Hemingway, never mind the whole history of all the literature in all the languages of the world.

[0] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Substance-Structure-Principles...

EDIT: forgot footnote.

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