lettered | Singularity - writing style, etc

I was just in a fest that had a poll where you could guess who wrote what while people were still anonymous. I was surprised that so many had guesses about who wrote what, and it really got me thinking about style. Some people certainly have a singular voice--something that is always the same no matter what they are writing. Others have certain elements or character types or details that are always likely to show up, no matter how generic the voice. Still others will always write a certain story; no matter how original and unique the plot, they are always the same tone or style of mystery, etc.

Let us proceed with the following on the premise that being recognizable or not is not a mark of quality. I feel like there are many great writers who are recognizable, and many who are not. I just wrote "are hot." I . . . really like writing, guys. Singularity is wonderful, but so is the ability to adapt different styles or diverse elements.

Per usual, I have questions. You, like RadioShack, have answers.

You can answer them in comments or in your own journal, but if in your own journal it'd be lovely if you'd drop a link, so I know it's there and discussion can happen! I think this is such an interesting topic. As a note, these questions pertain to how you feel about your writing, not your readership. You may feel that not enough people read you to recognize you, which is a totally valid point, or maybe you would never write anonymously, but I'm talking about how you feel about the nature of your writing, not the reception of it, if that makes sense. Also, there are just as many questions for readers, so if you don't write or would rather not address the writing questions, there's more! And feel free to adapt the quesitons for fanart, or vidding--let's discuss, guys!

Do you feel your writing is recognizable? Why or why not?
What do you think gives you away?
Have you written a fic that you feel best exemplifies what makes you recognizable? What was it?
What's a fic you've written that you feel is unrecognizable?
What are some fanfic writers you admire that you feel are recognizable?
What gives those writers away?
What's a fic that you would rec that you feel best exemplifies their recognizability?
What are some fanfic writers you admire that you feel are less recognizable?
What are some fics by those writers that you feel exemplifies difficulty in recognizing them?

For answering with ease!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good questions! I may answer them at my own journal later - but, on my own writing for a start, I tend to think it's recognisable depending on whether or not I've written whatever POV character I'm using before. There's a fairly hefty amount of 'my voice' in what I write, I think, but I find it really hard to write against the grain of what I see as my characters' style. So I think it's fairly easy to see the links between my Buffyverse fics from Buffy's POV, for example, but I wrote a Faith POV fic for Remix once, which no one recognised as me, and the moment I get out of the Buffyverse and into, say, Shakespeare or Athenian tragedy my voice gets a lot less colloquial and a lot more (hopefully not too) grandiose.

Otherwise, I try very hard to mix up the type of plots I produce, just because I get annoyed when reading people's stories and I realise I've already read them. :D But I have a certain love of anticlimax, which probably gets in more fics than I mean it to. Along with the dragons.

Heeeeee I love that part of your answer was that you are recognizable because of dragons.

The character's style being recognizable makes a lot of sense. I think I've never really quite felt that I was that much inside of someone's voice. I've felt that I was in someone's head--and that sometimes it's hard to get out of that person's head and be in someone else's--but doing character voices always feels like something outside of myself. Perhaps because I'm rather inconveniently introspective.

I think it is possible to write different plots and yet still have recognizable ways of plotting. Having the same plots is rather tired, I agree, but having a particular style of plotting seems not better or worse than having a particular style of writing--which, again, I think is just as great as being able to change it up. It seems to me a preference for anti-climax is a style thing--unless the climax is always, you know, anti-ed in the same way.

I do hope you answer these questions, but don't feel pressured. I just really like discussing this stuff!

Singularity - writing style, etc

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