Writing and style.

[foxmonkey]

I've wondered about this one a lot over the years. Today's question:

Style. Are there writers you can pick out by style alone? If so, what is it that you recognize? If you're a writer, is having a recognizable style important to you? Why or why not?

Comments

[worldwouldend.livejournal.com]

I saw what you said below about stories sort of blending/blurring into one another. I think this has a lot to do with writers influencing each other and fandom merging into some characterization/style consensus. I don't know why this happens exactly, but it's also how we end up with so much "fanon," right? It's always very interesting to me to jump to a different fandom and see how the general writing style immediately changes. This seems especially true for fandoms that aren't so LJ-based; I find those writers often go for a more straightforward storytelling with perhaps less stylistic/grammatical finesse or trickery.

I don't know what any of that means, though!

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

I think this has a lot to do with writers influencing each other and fandom merging into some characterization/style consensus.

Characterization/style consensus, absolutely! That's exactly what I'd been thinking about, that the trap of fanon characterization has certainly caught its fair share of victims. Not that the fic is bad, but...it's just kind of sad not to be able to tell who wrote what.