Although I often write about things as they “ought” to be in writing, I don’t believe that there ought to be an ought. Instead, I am discussing the ways that are most likely to lead to readers (or editors or agents, etc.) feeling “connected” to the writing or “understanding” the writing.

I do my best to avoid declaring writing to be bad, although I don’t hesitate to call ideas bad if they’re toxic, harmful, etc.

This doesn’t mean that style is irrelevant: I believe style should be chosen with intentionality. A stream-of-consciousness detective novel is likely to be either brilliant or terrible, with little room to be average. Investigative reporting with an unreliable narrator isn’t reporting at all. Pick a style that suits the subject matter.

Once you’ve chosen a style, any deviations from that style should also be intentional. Some authors use, to good effect, a distinct style for each narrator in a book. Other authors use the same style throughout all of their books. Remember that shifts in style typically indicate a shift in the text as well, so a sudden change of style will signal the reader to be on the lookout. Don’t alert the reader needlessly, or your writing will become exhausting.

And few writers want to exhaust their readers.