[norm]

I often ask myself: How predictable am I as a writer? In a span of about a year I've posted 10 separate contest entries on these forums, and I'm sure many of the regulars who have been here far longer have probably submitted a hell of a lot more than that.

If your name wasn't tied to a story, would readers still know it was your writing?

I'm always trying to find patterns in my writing and trying to do things a little differently with each story. Do any of you concern yourselves with falling in a pattern, or do you find a style or feel you like and stick with it regardless of whether or not it's predictable?

I thought this might make for a fun exercise; A contest in which every entry is submitted anonymously.

Would anyone be interested in doing something like this, or have any good ideas on how to run with this idea? Is it worth trying? I wanted to suggest trying something like this for one of the flash fiction/ short story contests, but of course there are a couple of obvious problems with that:

1. Someone would have to handle everyone else’s submissions so that the writer’s name isn’t attached to it. That would be a hefty workload, and it would make it very difficult to re-edit your story after it’s been posted.

2. Newcomers would have to be excluded. Not much fun for them.

[hippokrene]

Presuming they'd read several of my short stories and novels, a reader would pick up several... narrative ticks.

For example, here are several MCs I've had, see if you notice a trend.

1) A genderless demon who's wearing a human skin as a disguise and it turns out the skin is the conscious, living remains of a woman.
2) A woman who was cursed in the womb. Her right eye is actually a supernatural parasite that occasionally turns black, swells within her skull, and leaves her bedridden.
3) A woman whose arm is crushed in an industrial accident and then amputated. She's given a cybernetic replacement.
4) A young girl who is kidnapped and experimented on. Her body develops animalistic traits.

[Sarunus]

I think people would recognize mine pretty easily. I still sometimes find myself falling into the trap of thinking in Lithuanian when trying to write in English, which creates some odd sentence constructions and syntax that I have to edit. Sometimes, I don't get them all, or my sentences don't make sense even afterward. And this is as someone who has been using English everyday for over 20 years. I find I have much bigger problems with this in fiction, whereas when I write non-fiction I have almost no problem at all.

[EMMAXIS]

I often ask myself: How predictable am I as a writer? In a span of about a year I've posted 10 separate contest entries on these forums, and I'm sure many of the regulars who have been here far longer have probably submitted a hell of a lot more than that.

If your name wasn't tied to a story, would readers still know it was your writing?

I'm always trying to find patterns in my writing and trying to do things a little differently with each story. Do any of you concern yourselves with falling in a pattern, or do you find a style or feel you like and stick with it regardless of whether or not it's predictable?

I thought this might make for a fun exercise; A contest in which every entry is submitted anonymously.

Would anyone be interested in doing something like this, or have any good ideas on how to run with this idea? Is it worth trying? I wanted to suggest trying something like this for one of the flash fiction/ short story contests, but of course there are a couple of obvious problems with that:

1. Someone would have to handle everyone else’s submissions so that the writer’s name isn’t attached to it. That would be a hefty workload, and it would make it very difficult to re-edit your story after it’s been posted.

2. Newcomers would have to be excluded. Not much fun for them.



There are definitely patterns in my work that are obvious: often there is nudity, a spiritual appreciation or reverence for nature, a nostalgia for a mythical past, and sometimes a bit of preachy philosophizing (although I've tried to limit this as it is not in vogue these days). But I don't find myself trying to change these aspects of my writing. Many good writers visit the same themes: Stephen King loves Maine, Philip Pullman advocates his atheistic ideals, Lovecraft goes on about things so horrifying that you can't even put it into words, C.S. Lewis has his Christian themes, the list goes on.

I could write the life story of a cockroach, and that'd be different. But why would I want to? Why invest so much time and effort into something I am not passionate about?

[Princeroth]

I agree. I think the content of my stories are predictable but the plot... even I don't know what's going to happen! :D

Some recurring themes in my writing

1. Battle/skirmish/brawl/fight every 3 chapters - no exceptions. After reading Martin's A song of ice and fire and waiting patiently after hundreds of pages for a good 50 page battle I was left wanting after the piddle he delivered. He is a great writer but I can tell that he's not a fighter, or has combat experience.

2. Explicitly pointing who is speaking. Another habit I gained after reading other authors works where I wasn't quite sure who was speaking. I guess a skilled writer can do this by tone, but I'm not that skilled. :o

3. Ugly/broken characters. Scars, mental illness, advanced age, bad teeth, all my characters don't belong in a fairy tale.

4. Passive description. I'm a visual person, what can I say.

5. German sentence structure. Pops up occasionally, sometimes my sentences are in a strange order, or they run on for a paragraph, or I mess up capitalization. The curse of being bi-lingual.


A persons writing is their soul, I think in its purest unedited form you can tell a lot about someone.

[HellsGuardian]

I have a few, including but not limited to:-

Characters getting maimed / scarred heavily over the course of the story.

Characters slowly going insane for varying reasons.

At least one character will have a long coat / cloak / cape / labcoat.

POV Characters dying in both mundane and epic situations.

Characters bonding, and how those bonds change the characters.

Secondary characters becoming POV characters as "slots" open.

Multiple POV's

I could go on :p

[Sarunus]

I didn't really get into themes/plot devices that I think would identify me, but here are a few themes:

- Themes of camaraderie in combat

- A male character who is trying to live up to some sort of societal or personal expectation, but struggles

- A male character who has little problem attracting women but difficulty in actually "sealing the deal"

- Foreign characters, particularly from the former Soviet Union

- Looking at situations from multiple points of view/treating conflicts in the story like chess matches

- A battle in which one side has the advantage of having a very powerful weapon/technology that the other side doesn't have

- A character who is having problems in their marriage

- The use of intelligence principles by one or both sides of a conflict

- A character attempting to overcome a life of disappointment or tragedy

[Luya Sevrein]

At least one character will have a long coat / cloak / cape / labcoat.

I'm so in on that!

I tried to come up with a pretty original plotline - or at least, semi-original and done well, or at least... entertaining. (Heck, it's slowly getting worse.) I can't speak for my fantasy work right now but I am writing a YA novel with this idea /\ in mind.

I do think it's slightly silly if anyone were to say you shouldn't be able to pick themes out of your work, because themes are what make it specail. Like, for exmaple, Sarunus says comradere in combat? Well, how well that works would depend on how well he writes it and how much we all understand and feel for his characters. It could make his work memorable.

I mean, there are a reason tropes crop up and that's because these things happen everyday in real life. ...Mostly. ;D So, I like it. As long as the framework is semi-original and the writing is good.

Speaking of, though, here's some of mine.

An urban fantasy world, where all types of creatures exist unknown to the public.

The best friends 'are-they-aren't-they'(?) thing.

Finding a sense of family.

A seemingly bad guy turns out to be all right.

The secret organization that deals with paranormal goings-on.

Oh, and my biggest one, losing a mentor figure! Yey! Sadly, (or happily) there is no revenge.

[norm]

I find myself wanting to switch things up as much as I can can. Whether or not I do a good job of it I can't say. But I nitpick over little repetitions.

Originally posted by EMMAXIS
There are definitely patterns in my work that are obvious: often there is nudity, a spiritual appreciation or reverence for nature, a nostalgia for a mythical past, and sometimes a bit of preachy philosophizing (although I've tried to limit this as it is not in vogue these days). But I don't find myself trying to change these aspects of my writing. Many good writers visit the same themes: Stephen King loves Maine, Philip Pullman advocates his atheistic ideals, Lovecraft goes on about things so horrifying that you can't even put it into words, C.S. Lewis has his Christian themes, the list goes on.

Even things like that, I find almost to be lame. I mean I like Stephen King, but does everything have to take place in Maine?

I've read a few of the Bachman Books. He really wasn't fooling anybody.

[EMMAXIS]

I agree. I think the content of my stories are predictable but the plot... even I don't know what's going to happen! :D

Some recurring themes in my writing

1. Battle/skirmish/brawl/fight every 3 chapters - no exceptions. After reading Martin's A song of ice and fire and waiting patiently after hundreds of pages for a good 50 page battle I was left wanting after the piddle he delivered. He is a great writer but I can tell that he's not a fighter, or has combat experience.

2. Explicitly pointing who is speaking. Another habit I gained after reading other authors works where I wasn't quite sure who was speaking. I guess a skilled writer can do this by tone, but I'm not that skilled. :o

3. Ugly/broken characters. Scars, mental illness, advanced age, bad teeth, all my characters don't belong in a fairy tale.

4. Passive description. I'm a visual person, what can I say.

5. German sentence structure. Pops up occasionally, sometimes my sentences are in a strange order, or they run on for a paragraph, or I mess up capitalization. The curse of being bi-lingual.


A persons writing is their soul, I think in its purest unedited form you can tell a lot about someone.



I agree with a lot of what you've said. I too thought SoIaF could have used more action or at least more dramatic turns.

Also, you are the second person here to mention bilingualism. Even though I, too, am bilingual (Greek) I don't think it has affected my style much since I grew up in the USA. What has had a greater effect on me is multiculturalism. I have written a blog regarding melodrama and how it is largely a cultural concept. When people say to me, "Nobody talks like that!" I find it frustrating, since Greek people, especially my parents, are prone to fits of "melodrama" all the time.