Is there a better style guide?

Question

In the past, I've read the Elements of Style, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, and Steven Pinker's Sense of Style. The first two advice the utmost brevity, the Elements of Style giving it greater precedence than rhythm. Sense of Style is more lenient but offers no rule for how much wordiness is too much.

There are some writers, early and modern, who seem to have refused to follow a style guide, because, although their prose tends to obey certain constraints, no rules can be derived from their stylistic tendencies. It seems that, rather than following a style guide, other considerations took their attention, such as rhythm.

The necessity of rhythm seems to demand a breach of most style guides, which I've heard that editors obey faithfully, and which are considered handbooks of good style. But without a good style guide, some writers tend to introduce great verbosity into a piece of writing, and great unclarity, as they deem unlimited their freedom to deviate from the rules.

So my question is: Is there a better style guide, not demanding the utmost faithfulness to its guidelines, but giving additional guidelines on how to properly deviate from the rules given by other style guides?

Answer 1

This isn't really an answer, it doesn't suggest any particular style guide. It's an extended comment, and might help the asker of the question (and any other readers) save money by not buying another style guide.

You won't learn (better) style by reading yet another style guide, you'll only learn that by (1st) writing (2nd) reading what you have written and (3rd) editing your writing to better meet your criteria of a good style for yourself.

Some writers (perhaps Charles Dickens) tend towards great verbosity. Some (James Joyce) seem entirely unconcerned with clarity. I don't think either Dickens or Joyce would have been better writers for more carefully hewing to a style guide. And I don't think the verbosity of Dickens, or the obscurity of Joyce, were the result of neither of them having a style guide available to 'correct' their writing.

You seem to think that slavish adherence to a prescriptive style guide, one which specifically identifies the situations where slavish adherence to its own prescriptions, and those found in other style guides, should be avoided, will lead you ineluctably to the secrets of style. It won't, you will only develop an acceptable (whatever that means to you) style by writing (and the rest, going back to the first paragraph of my answer).

By all means do continue to read style guides, but realise that all the time you spend reading them is time spent not writing. And read them critically, identifying those parts which you might want to consider for your own writing, and those parts which you do not want to pay attention to.

Answer 2

I'd like to correct your assumption that you can develop a literary style by following a style guide.

Strunk's The Elements of Style was primarily written to teach writing non-fiction. It was first published as a textbook for university students, to help them write better essays. The revision by White was commissioned by the publisher, Macmillan, "for the college market and the general trade". William's Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace "presents principles of writing to help students diagnose their prose quickly and revise it effectively". Pinker's "focus" in The Sense of Style is "on non-fiction". The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association and the MLA Handbook are meant to guide writers of research papers. The upcoming 19th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style is the first one that expands the "traditional focus on nonfiction", and we'll have to wait and see how that turns out.

Style guides (try to) present guidance on how to write clear, concise, and unobtrusive prose. It is necessary, for writers of fiction as well, to understand some of the more important rules laid forth, for example, in such style guides. But if you want to develop your own literary style, as High Performance Mark has already recommended, you need to write. A lot.

Aspiring writers are always looking for a shortcut. The book that explains the secrets of writing to them. But there are no secrets beyond dilligent practise.