What's your style?

[belial.1980]

What's your style?

I find that hard or answer—or at least articulate—but I'll give it a shot. I think the author I try to emulate most is Neil Gaiman. He's got a slick, captivating style of prose that's really amazing. I appreciate the way that he can enliven a fantasy story with very pertinent, very human aspects. I hope some day I'll have the storytelling skills to be able to do the same thing.

I like the way Jim can craft a fast paced story with lots of action. I try to follow suit, although my stories tend to be darker than his. I'm not as funny as Jim (few people are), but I try to use humor whenever I can. I love the strangeness that Michael Moorcock, H.P. Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard bring to the genre. All three artists really have a talent for injecting a creepy, esoteric feel into their stories. However I do find those guys a bit icy. I write dark stories but I also try to toss some warm fuzzies into the mix. I've found this to be very challenging—how does one craft a tender moment without seeming trite? Hopefully that's something that'll come with time.

There's a part of me that's a natural iconoclast. I want to do things my way and create a voice that's different from what I've seen out there. I have a tendency to take archetypes and dissect them and mix and match pieces like a mad scientist in a lab, in hopes of creating something that looks familiar to the reader at first glance then ends up surprising them. I know what sells, but I want to do things my way. Derivative is the last thing I ever want to be. I hope I can keep that mindset and still break into the market someday.

Anyway, that's my style in a nutshell. How about you? (I showed you mine; now you gotta show me yours.)

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

To me, realising you have a consistent predictable style means it's time to learn how to do something different.

I try to have the style vary to suit the work and the viewpoint character's voices, so an aristocrat in a quasi-medieval tech-level society on a lost colony will read very differently from a computer game designer in a socialist utopia of the 22nd century.  I have completed one longish novel (105,000 words) in the particularly florid style of late 19th and early 20th century translations of Alexandre Dumas, because it's one I enjoy immensely much myself and lots of fun to write.  (There are chapters in that with an average sentence length of fifty words.)

Insofar as anything is a recognisable recurring influence on my style that I can detect, it's Livy for description in general and Douglas Adams for the gift of conveying quite complex ideas precisely and simply in a few sentences, which I have tried hard to emulate - though not usually as Adams mostly did for the sake of a joke.

Looking back on what you read, though, it seems you are talking about tone and philosophy as much as literary style per se.  And there are definitely things that I do a fair bit in that.  I am very much not a romantic, and I do tend to write about strong loving relationships that are not romantic in the Western standard cultural sense.  I'm generally communication-positive, pro-taking responsibility for change within what you can do yourself, pro-understanding the ubiquity of evolutionary processes at every level in the world; pro-strong friendships, sex-positive, body-positive, opposed to gender essentialism and fond of non-gendered angels, AIs, and aliens; I do not like simplistic happy endings, I like my victories to be hardfought and realistic and, well a character in something of mine being someone you like and care for does not guarantee they won't die abruptly half-way through if they're the sort of person who is silly enough to repeatedly put themselves in dangerous situations.

[BobForPresident]

I'm feeling really close to Paul S Kemp's style - very moody and bloody. But my stuff's a bit more romantic, I think. 

[KarlTenBrew]

My style actually comes down to how I would tell the story to another person face to face.  Read my posts on any given forum, and you'll probably come to recognize my 'vocie', despite lack of facial expression and gesticulation.  Which can be hard to do, seeing as this tends to make stories somewhat predictable stream-of-consciousness type of work.  Although I'm actually working with this on the book I'm trying to write, I try not to use it with other writing.  The trouble is, it's hard for me not to fall into 'narrator mode'...so when I'm not writing a narration...oi.

I agree that regardless of having a standard style or 'voice' in writing, it's good to practice multiple styles.  You don't have to write a book , but just occasional one-page exercises can be very enlightening.  Trust me, it doesn't just help you become better with that writing style, it helps you make your 'true' style better.  You get a better feel of what you tend to do without thinking about it, even when it's not really what you want.  It can really help you improve your own style to keep fresh with the basics of others.

[LizW65]

I try to tailor my style to whatever I'm writing.  My first instinct is toward lush, Byzantine, quasi-Victorian prose with long sentences and paragraphs and very little dialogue, so I've had to actively fight that while working on my "film noir lite" novel.
Much of my first re-write consists of simplifiying and condensing.  One-third of the way through the revision I've already cut something on the order of thirty thousand words from the manuscript.
As for stylistic influences (as opposed to format influences, which I'll get to in a moment) I think I spend more time trying not to be influenced by anyone else's style than otherwise.  I adore Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in particular, but I don't try to emulate them -- the moment I consciously imitate someone else my writing sounds stilted, trite, and unnatural. 

My love of complex plots that escalate to the point of insanity but never, ever get out of the writer's control probably comes of devouring everything by Donald Westlake, PG Wodehouse, and Georgette Heyer that I could lay my hands on in my early teens.  (I blame Heyer for my tendancy to write in convoluted nineteenth-century style prose, which I've had to fight against ever since; much of what I initially admired about her style I now find annoying.)

For now, I think my style is dictated largely by getting inside the head of my POV character and working out what motivates him or her in a particular scene -- what I think of as Method writing.

[meg_evonne]

I'll show my lack of professionalism here.  After 35 years of writing for myself only, I read one of JB's books and something inside me simply screamed that I wanted to write like that.  I'm not talking genre like urban fantasy here.  I fell in love with his brisk, concise, compact description.  I fell in love with the graphic expression and use of senses that blasted off the pages.  I fell I love with his mix of distinct realistic characters--with powerful females (he likes strong women and it shows), his intense creative action, the frailty of Harry mixed with his power, his character rants on everything from the smell of hospitals to the types of fear.  It's quirky and fresh with lots of snark.  The plots and writing show intelligence.  The speed of his delivery, while still managing to place verticality along with horizontal motion in just the perfect mix.

Since I was writing by myself and for no one, I tended to the longer descriptive work.  My personal preference over my life time to gravitate to English authors.  My love of English spy novels, English romances, English classics, English mysteries, English author sci fi shaped my preferences before I knew there were preferences for those things.  I've been told that my historical work is on a par with Phillipa Gregory, as I've not read them I can't attest to that.  But I like to get steeped into a scene.

Along comes Butcher with his short, fast paced, graphic, film noir, kick ass pages in a style that I don't see anywhere else.  Yeah, I've now read a variety of urban fantasy authors and tried to find others like him....  I don't find them.  Not in the intense clarity of his style.  I've not explored graphic novels, but I see his style as unique and individual and unlike anything else that pops up on the best seller lists.  (I'm not a fan of the Alera books, not that I think they are horrible--they just aren't unique to me like his style in the Dresden File books.)

I'd like to think we are seeing a new trend, started by Butcher that is a unique and new style of graphically written novels.  Since mainstream readers don't read graphics--this is incredibly fresh and appealing to them.  I hope that someday he receives the recognition that he deserves.  Not easy when your preferred genre is sci fi/fantasy.

So on my journey of writing style I know that I can't, nor do I want to copy Jim Butcher.  To do so would be foolish and impossible. Yet that which he does that I admire, I can explore, develop, expound, and learn. 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Along comes Butcher with his short, fast paced, graphic, film noir, kick ass pages in a style that I don't see anywhere else.  Yeah, I've now read a variety of urban fantasy authors and tried to find others like him....  I don't find them.  Not in the intense clarity of his style. 

Who have you tried ? I think the Mike Carey/Charlie Huston end of urban fantasy does this far more than the more paranormal romance end - Huston more concisely than Carey, who tends to more of the Raymond Chandler direction of odd but excellent metaphors which Harry's voice does from time to time.  And, well, it may be newish to urban fantasy, but it would be hard to argue it doesn't fit in the tradition descending ultimately from Dashiel Hammett, or in the 'first-person smartass" line of descent exemplified by Archie Goodwin in the nero Wolfe novels.

[meg_evonne]

Right, exactly what I'm saying but updated to this new graphic age.  It's been ages since i read Chandler, Hammett, Wolf, (and maybe it was my age at the time that didn't make me a serious fan of their work.) but it is that style that pulled me to it.  (I also plead Bookstore manager snobbishness at the time.  LOL)  As to Carey and Huston, I've a coupon for Border's and will give them a chance.  I have tried the various short story authors, but again didn't find that pointedness that i enjoy in Butcher.  Will let you know what i think when I read them.

[NothingWicked]

Depressingly, my voice tends to be matter of fact. There are many styles and stylistic elements I admire, but when I'm writing, it just comes out flat. I re-write over and over and put server conscious effort into every word and phrase and it still sometimes manages to come out sound like some musty librarian giving a utilitarian description of a novel's scene. I'm much better with non-fiction writing and editing. I keep hoping that my style will mature, but I may just be trying too hard.

[meg_evonne]

To NothingWicked, it's hard to figure out what problems you might be experiencing?  Others will probably give you even better ideas.  You posted a short bit on the new game thread "Hooked, not Hooked" but maybe you need to post something longer so we can all take a look at it?  What your posted didn't really grab me but i don't have enough to try to figure it out.  Like I said others might have better ideas too!  Don't dispare--surely you won't be writing non-fic all your life!  I couldn't write non-fic if someone had a gun to my head, so you're one up on me!!!!  LOL

[NothingWicked]

I wrote this today as a response to the prompt: write a paragraph describing a place that you consider "heaven on earth." It's fairly typical of my style...

<"Heaven on earth" is a state of mind. Just stopping to sit and imagine a beautiful place or experience can bring it out, no matter where I happen to physically be. In my thoughts heaven is a beautiful, still forest. The silence isn't oppressive there, because the immense beauty surpasses all other senses. Shadow and light play between the giant trees and skip over the surfaces of a multitude of ponds that span, limitless, in every direction. Moss and grass mingle at the roots of the great trees, creating a gentle padding that invites me to stay. The crystalline pools of water reflect the lush leaves of the canopy above me, encasing me in the security of all the many shades of green, and I am happy. My mind is in "heaven on earth.">

[meg_evonne]

It's lovely and your post in Hooked has interesting comparisions.  I'm not sure where you read 'flat' in your work?  Your writing seems very philosophical.  One of my favorite reads last year was the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.   Have you read it?  I wonder if your 'flat' is another persons enjoyment? 

I guess I'm saying that if you wrote a world as lovely as your Heaven on Earth, I would like to read it.  :-)

[NothingWicked]

wow, thanks! I have not read any Paulo Coelho although I think I'll try out the Alchemist.

[THETA]

I find that i write very modern characters with a much older tone of voice.

My characters of course speak with the snark, sarcasm, and witty repartee that dominates contemporary writing and is currently very popular, but my descriptions of places and omniscient views on characters are usually with the florid style of a much older generation.  Remember how Tolkien took three pages to describe the Old Forest and the dry, intelligent commentary of Jane Austin's third person omniscient narrator?   

Thus i vacillate between fast, humorous, hard, modern dialogue and languid descriptions of characters, moods, and places.