Style Do you think you have a unique style?

Discussion in 'General Writing' started by Chloelouise, May 24, 2020.

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  1. Count_Spatula

    Count_Spatula New Member

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    I had a creative writing teacher that my writing often has a lot verisimilitude in it.

    From my personal observation, I think I'm very too the point, because I don't spend a lot of time describing characters and settings beyond a couple of sentences, so the most recurring criticism I get is about pacing because everything in my stories happen to suddenly.
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2020
  2. Thorn Cylenchar

    Thorn Cylenchar Senior Member

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    Sure- If you count 'bad' as a style.
     
  3. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I sort of think in general that style is a very bad thing for a writer to get attached to. I thought I had a style many years ago, and that thought was actually holding me back as a writer. I had to learn to let go of that to evolve sort of. And in the end, I'm not sure that my style really changed all that much. I just write better because I stopped doing things that I thought were part of my style. Bad writing habits really don't create a style. Even the ones that break all the rules (and do it well) execute with precision. And then what we have is technique.

    Perhaps, we need to pay more attention to technique than style. I would say technique is a far more import focus. A style of any sorts means very little without knowing how to work it and having the skills to move past it without even giving it much thought. Sure, I know what I write like, but I also know what a strive for. And it really is all about technique and little about stylistic choices, in my opinion. And I don't think they are the same thing.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2020
  4. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    I think you'd have to add Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut to that category. Vonnegut particularly. Maybe Douglas Adams, too.


    Tom Berger was like that ... each of his novels seemed to be written by a different man, with a different personality. That was particularly true of Little Big Man, where the prologue and afterward were supposedly written by a "man of letters" while the bulk of the book was in the voice of an uneducated frontiersman.

    As for myself, all I can say is that I must have some kind of style, because people who know me who have read my books say that it's just like I'm speaking to them in person. I take that as a compliment, although maybe I shouldn't.
     
  5. Richach

    Richach Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I think I did, then I realised I needed to learn how to write as that was necessary. It was like I was catching a bus and leaving the creative me behind. One day I will go and find myself again.
     
  6. Lazaares

    Lazaares Contributor Contributor

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    This is an interesting question. If you asked me at any point of time, pertaining the present, I would answer "yes". However, if you asked at any point in time pertaining the past, I would say "no". Likely, I will deny having had a unique style in June 2020 by the time I am asked this question again in a year, because I know that is simply how rapid my style is developing / changing.
     
  7. Aaron Smith

    Aaron Smith Banned Contributor

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    Yes, but not in a good way.
     
  8. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    I vary my style depending on what I write. My Dying Earth stories probably have the most distinctive style, but I'm just mimicking Jack Vance there.
     
  9. frigocc

    frigocc Contributor Contributor

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    Nope. I have no qualms about borrowing the writing style from whichever work it was that inspired me. As long as you make the story and the characters your own, it doesn't matter if your style is unique.
     
  10. GraceLikePain

    GraceLikePain Senior Member

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    Once you know yourself and know how to convey the ideas you want, you will have a style.

    I think I have a "style" in the sense that everything I do has an element of goofy. That's my favorite thing. I love really serious situations with a single goofy element. Like saving the world while singing Backstreet Boys.
     
  11. ISalem

    ISalem Member

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    I believe so. I do have a unique writing style and thats what makes my writing different than others.
     

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