Tone and style

The tone of a story may be light-hearted, serious, or optimistic. The style a story is written in can be highly descriptive, succinct or dark and gritty. These aren’t complete lists but should give you an idea of what tone and style are.

Tone and style can both be used to convey an attitude.

Fowler’s English Usage recommends that you try to use a simple word rather than a larger word if you can. It’s all part of writing so that you can be understood rather than writing so that you can impress the reader with your knowledge of words. Remember, you’re telling a story here, you’re not sitting an English Language exam!