Inappropriate Purchases and Writing Styles: The Stingy Shopper

​​Today we take a look at the stingy shopper! Writers are a lot like shoppers, and the writing process is a hell of a lot like shopping. Your writing process says a lot about how and what you will write, and it dramatically influences your voice. The beauty here is that there is no right or wrong as long as you write in your way. Try to write like someone else, and you will fail. Note: many of us have more than one style influencing us! 

The Stingy Shopper

Like the premeditator, everything the stingy shopper puts onto the page is deliberate and planned. The stingy shopper does not like extra things, though. If they had a mantra, it would be “Just the facts, ma’am.” This type of writer is all about bones and subtext, and a lot is implied. Often, these are some of the most fun works to read if you’re up to the challenge because they engage you more as a reader.

Pros: Falling into the “sentimental” classification of writing (see Orhan Pamuk’s book, The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist, for more on this), the stingy shopper counts on his or her structure and method to help tell the story. Hemingway’s novels are an excellent example of compact, surface type of writing. If there is a more straightforward way to say something, that is how it is written. His writing creates a surface, but there is depth, unsaid but implied. Read “The Old Man at the Bridge” to better understand this stingy (but beautiful) writing.

Cons: Sometimes, too much gets cut, and the writing becomes flat and difficult to understand. These writers often are accused of taking the emotion out of the story, although if done correctly, the emotion becomes part of the subtext. If you are shooting for a lengthy manuscript, you will struggle. Need some inspiration? Check out Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction.

Tips:

• If you are going to write in this style, you have to be deliberate. Everything you include must be intentional.
• Practice showing instead of telling.
• Preplan your subtext. What do you want your readers to intuit? What are you trying to build beneath the surface of your writing?