Literary styles and techniques we copy

[StillStunned]

Let's share some of the styles and techniques of established (non-Lit) authors we admire!

As a rule, my preferred style is to use simple language and words. This is a deliberate choice.

I have a large vocabulary, and I've been reading literary works all my life. There was a time when I loved writing words for the sake of using them. I enjoyed showing off my mastery of the English language.

The older I get, though, the more I think language can get in the way of the story. Shorter, everyday words have a power that flowery words don't. I think simple language makes descriptions more vivid, emotions more immediate and dialogue more realistic. I think it draws the reader in more easily.

The one story where I've gone all-in with language and vocabulary is The Countesses of Tannensdal. I consciously imitated the Gothic style of the 19th century authors to create lurid landscapes and dramatic characters. More immediately, I tried to mimic Georgette Heyer's formal style of writing, which she uses to great effect in her Regency novels.* The language she uses reflects the strict social rules of the period, and her characters and settings feel all the more real because of it. She manages to balance this formality with vivid storytelling, and I enjoyed the challenge of doing the same for my story. Of course I had to explore new territory for the sex scenes.

Another technique I've been wanting to steal comes from Mr American, by George MacDonald Fraser. This is a standalone novel about an American trying to fit into British society in the early 20th century. The protagonist is called Mark Franklin, but throughout the book - written almost entirely in the close third person - the narrator refers to him exclusively as "Mr Franklin". Not "Franklin", not "Mark". This creates a sense of detachment, a distance between the reader and the protagonist, which mimics Mr Franklin's own sense of detachment from his new life. It's a simple trick, but one that gives great depth to the book.

So over to you! What tricks and techniques do you admire, consciously imitate or revert to? What styles do you avoid or abhor? Do you find yourself slipping into them despite your best efforts?



* Recommended reading. She combines romance, adventure and humour with an impeccable command of the English language and knowledge of the period. Think Jane Austen, but with more excitement. Try The Toll-Gate, The Quiet Gentleman, The Unknown Ajax, The Grand Sophie, The Reluctant Widow or The Masqueraders.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I don't set out to emulate any author, and no-one has ever said, "Your style reminds me of so and so," so that suits me just fine.

In terms of mainstream authors, John Banville writes some amazing sentences which I'd love to have written, but I think I get by on my own.

 

[onehitwanda]

I don't intentionally emulate the writing style of anyone that I've read. I'm just careful about how I choose which synonym to use, and I'll often choose words to match the mood of what I'm trying to convey.

A:

I looked out from the top of the small tumulus, gaze fixed on the far-flung horizon. Curtains of rain moved over the distant hills, and the wind soughed through the long stems of grass

vs B:

I looked out from the top of the small earth mound, staring at the horizon. Rain hid parts of the distant hills, and the wind rustled the grass

B is easier to read, but the rhythm and order of words convey nothing of how I wanted to show Gwenhwyfar's despair.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I don't intentionally emulate the writing style of anyone that I've read. I'm just careful about how I choose which synonym to use, and I'll often choose words to match the mood of what I'm trying to convey.

Totally agree that the two phrasings evoke very different imagery and am a very vocal proponent of your word sculpting and imagery.
(Yeah, there's a but or there would be no reason for my post...)

I looked out from the top of the small tumulus, gaze fixed on the far-flung horizon. Curtains of rain moved over the distant hills, and the wind soughed through the long stems of grass

I think simple language makes descriptions more vivid, emotions more immediate and dialogue more realistic. I think it draws the reader in more easily.

To stunned's point, I'd recommend two small edits.

Replace tumulus with earthen mound. 'Earth mound' sounds crude and awkward. To my ear earthen mound evokes the petrichor and lets me smell the coming rain. Second, let the 'winds whisper' through the tall grass. let me hear it.

Small changes that, for me, bring in other senses, deepening the overall effect of the passage. The simpler word choice also
lets me stay in the moment.

Just my two cents...

 

[yowser]

I have only twice consciously imitated another writer's style and incorporated their themes (not counting the Mike Hammer challenge, which of course was deliberate and explicit for all who participated.) Done purely for my own purposes (to see if I could pull off a story in an unfamiliar style. And play with the techniques and phrasings that a superior author used.)

Having just read Helen McDonald's 'H is for Hawk', I was impressed with her descriptive powers and the ways in which she immersed the reader into her tale. Thus 'A is for Anal' was birthed. Comments, typically, were mixed, with one complaint 'You're writing about sticking your dick up someone's butt you don't have to write like Hemingway.' etc. (There is a high probability that the reader was unfamiliar with the work thus inspired.) But other comments were positive.

Imitating Borges of course is impossible, one of those 'shoot for the moon but settle for a low-lying cloud' sort of endeavors, but I enjoyed doing House of Doors (set in Buenos Aires, not that anyone noticed.) I was pleased with the reactions, uniformly positive, here is one: 'Very beautifully written in a style not often found today. On this site, my interest in the stories doesn't usually last until the final paragraph, but I couldn't stop reading this. Sensual, poetic, and classic. Unforgettable.'

I think here at Lit (or anywhere, actually) one of the most important goals of a writer is to find your 'voice' and I don't think you can do that by imitation. But I think as a writing exercise you can learn a lot of other craft-like elements by doing so. I would like to think my efforts subsequent to these trials have benefited.

 

[Euphony]

I am careful to avoid stylistic tries and more use other writers to frame into my own version of the tone I'm going for.

I'll read say an Adams or Vonnegut when I'm trying for a more absurdist tone myself but if I stray too far into appropriation it has disastrous results as I don't have the same tools to draw from.

To get into my personal version of the mood/state of mind is where it works best (or really at all.)

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't try to emulate any particular author, but I think my writing preferences have been significantly shaped by the mid-20th century American authors I grew up with.

I aim to write in a clear, grammatically correct style that sticks fairly closely to normal prose conventions. I tend to follow Elmore Leonard's "rules," including the one that you should use "said" in dialogue rather than fancier substitutes. I believe for the most part in showing not telling. I've made a point of focusing more on verb choice as a way of improving my writing. The verb is by far the most important word in the sentence, and special care should be taken with picking the right one.

I have a dark comic sensibility--i.e., life is full of shit and darkness, but it's healthy to try to laugh about it--that I think animates some of my storytelling. I've been heavily influenced by authors who have similar perspectives, like Mark Twain, Roald Dahl, Henry Fielding, Kingsley Amis, Kurt Vonnegut, John Irving, Flannery O'Connor. I probably maintain a little more ironic distance from my characters than some do. That reflects how I am and how I see things.

 

[jhealy55]

Not sure that I'd be any good at trying to channel another author's style or technique. In the same way that guitarists are asked how they came up with their own unique sound, many will shrug and say something like, "I was just trying to sound like BB King/Hendrix/Clapton and no matter how hard I tried, this was what came out instead."

One thing I do greatly admire about Neil Gaiman is how much he leaves to the reader's imagination. His descriptions are often much less detailed than I remembered when I re-read him. I never realized that I was adding color/shape/depth to the story that he had never explicitly laid out in his text.

I've suggested his work to others, who have had mixed reactions, and the variable seems to be how well the reader colors in all the gaps. Not sure that he's doing this consciously, but he has a gift for mentioning the tip of an iceberg in a way that allows some readers to feel the weight and dimension of the remaining portion, that wasn't readily visible, based on his account. He manages to pull in elements that resonate deeply within our cultural/spiritual memory and in my case, it adds tremendous depth and context to everything that he is explicitly describing on the surface.

 

[AG31]

I'm a great admirer of authors who I call word smiths. Their works are rife with little phrases that you know they put in their notebook five years ago just waiting for the right time to use them. Mick Herron comes to mind.

I don't try to emulate anybody. I just wrestle with sentences until the right terms emerge. I think age related recall issues are contributing to the wrestling match.

 

[Bramblethorn]

"Magnum Innominandum" is a period piece influenced by Robert W. Chambers, Algernon Blackwood, and H.P. Lovecraft, and occasionally Oscar Wilde. I wasn't trying to emulate their voices exactly, but I was aiming for it to feel like it was written by one of that crowd somewhere around the 1930s, and a little stuffy by the standards of that era. (Excepting the second framing layer, which is intentionally a more modern voice.)

I made a point of using old-fashioned language, e.g. "I motored down to Connecticut" and "in a blue funk", to give the reader that "this was written a long time ago" feeling, but also threw in some words like "heptatych" that would've been obscure even then, at least to people without a fancy education. I'm sure a historian could poke holes in my attempts to emulate "stuffy 1930s", and looking back I can see one or two things I'd changed, but it seems to have worked reasonably well.

The fantasy half of "Copper Coin" is 1001 Nights pastiche, as retold by a 21st-century Iraqi-Australian woman of liberal Islamic sensibilities. Rafi's normal voice is basically educated Australian with some Islamic/Arabic vocabulary, although one rule I set for myself in establishing her voice is that her belief system doesn't have much truck with the idea of chance/luck, and that should be reflected in how she talks about such things.

When she gets into storytelling mode, I'm trying to evoke the feel of the 1001 Nights, in particular the Mardrus/Mathers' version, although tinged by Rafi's natural voice. My usual approach to visual description is minimalist, but here I turned it way up because ornate descriptions of stuff are part of that style:

The snake began to move again, and then to wriggle, and then to shake. Then it slipped from her ankle, and before her eyes it transformed into a huge jinn, still shaking with laughter. He was very ugly indeed! He stood as tall as three men, and his feet were webbed like a frog's, and on his head were great spiralled horns. His tail was forty feet long and his zabb was longer still, and they twisted around one another, knotting and unknotting. His lips belched flames when he spoke, and his tongue was that of the little grey snake, although grown to enormous size.

Also some flowery letter-writing:

May Allah look upon you, O Prince, and see to it that your wealth and your power come to match your kindness and righteousness.

This being Adiba's way of saying "die in a fire, scumbag".

I enjoyed writing those two, and I wouldn't rule out doing something like that again. But in general I'm trying to find my own voice rather than consciously seeking to absorb somebody else's.

 

[AchtungNight]

I don't copy other authors' style unless it's intentional and flows right. There's a reason my story "Pool Hustle" and Melville's "Moby Dick" start out the same way. They're both about a great hunt for elusive prey coming to fruition. Be it whalers going after a great white beast or a lustful guy seeking a threesome. Or a lesbian couple also looking for a threesome. LOL.

 

[dmallord]

I do not consciously consider a writing style when I sit down to write something for Lit. I wasn't and still am not much of a reader of other authors, past or present. Writing served as a catharsis during the COVID-19 isolation period. It was also when I discovered Lit. That's how the two came together, and my first efforts at stories came about. And I am not sure I have a 'style.' At my age, it is enough to get up in the morning/afternoon, make it to the keyboard, and see what comes out.

There are no formal writing lessons in my work. It shows, sometimes, when others say get an editor. Although, I've had a few comments that a story is very lyrical and reads like poetry. I accept suggestions for improvement, though they are few and far between in Lit comments. However, I found an excellent editor, @kenjisato , who made my grammatical errors fade and my stories more tolerant. I learned from him the other day that he has edited forty of my stories! How time flies.

I'm grateful Lit has such kind and generous people who devote time to others. It makes me believe in people again.

 

[AG31]

I made a point of using old-fashioned language,

I tried to make the language of one of my characters sound like what I heard from simpering villains in movies with medieval settings. One reader didn't get that and thought it just represented no ear for dialogue. If anyone's interested in giving me their take on the sound of the language, or suggestions about how to better achieve my intention, it's this one: An Enigma It's one Lit page, BDSM.

Do we have a forum or thread for asking for help on specific writing challenges like this one?

EDIT: The Feedback forum was mentioned here in this thread. The description doesn't include people soliciting feedback, but maybe it will work. I'm going to repost this request there.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

"Style" can encompass many things in literature.

Where other writers are concerned, when I have the inspiration for a story, I try to decide early on what the theme and tone will best fit the intended plot. This is the major area where I might lean on influences of other writers to see how they tackled similar elements in their stories.

For example, if my theme is going to be something like "good versus evil" in a contemporary setting, I might be influenced by how Jack Reacher's morality influences his triumphs in one of Lee Child's novels. If I'm considering a more teasingly upbeat tone, I might be influenced by the works of Janet Evanovich.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I do mysteries in a style that is reminiscent of Raymond Chandler, Earl Stanley Gardner, or Mickey Spillane. Perhaps a hybrid of all three, or would it be tribrid? I write horror in a modernized approximation of Bram Stoker. And I write sex like I write sex. Hum, anyway, I pick up the style of other writers by reading them. There is seldom a conscious effort to mimic someone else other than in specific stories.

 

[dmallord]

I do not consciously consider a writing style when I sit down to write something for Lit. I wasn't and still am not much of a reader of other authors, past or present. Writing came as a And I am not sure I have a 'style.' At my age, it is enough to get up in the morning/afternoon, make it to the keyboard, and see what comes out.

There are no formal writing lessons in my work. It shows, sometimes, when others say get an editor. Although, I've had a few comments that a story is very lyrical and reads like poetry. I accept suggestions for improvement, though they are few and far between in Lit comments. However, I did find an excellent editor, @kenjisato, who makes my grammatical errors more tolerant. I learned from him the other day that he has edited forty of my stories! How time flies.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've parodied known authors twice. In BTB, Incorporated, I wrote a Mickey Spillane-style spoof, which was a lot of fun, full of over-the-top hardboiled detective language.

In The Bullfighter and The Woman, I wrote in a style that was meant to be half-spoof, half-homage to Ernest Hemingway.

I don't recommend strict emulation as an artistic goal or method, but doing it once in a while can be a very useful writing exercise because it forces you to focus on what the elements of a style are. You become a more conscious and mindful writer.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Literary styles and techniques we copy​

I love a range of authors; mostly American and English. And my own work can shift style from paragraph to paragraph.

I guess my winding parenthetical sections owe a little to Conrad, also my occasionally ambiguity.

I blame my frequent, indulgent grandiloquence and recherché lexicon on Poe. It’s all his fault.

At the other end of the spectrum, I think some of my dialog (and some of my more direct prose) reflects my liking of Steinbeck, Greene, and Orwell. I think my dialog is often less elliptical than my prose.

My writing can be quite formal - which reflects both my work (I have to write formal technical reports) and also an echo of Le Carre.

When I come over all descriptive / evocative. There is some inflected from Twain.

My periodic recourse to absurdist levity (even in dramatic situations) has elements of both Lewis Carroll and Douglas Adams.

So I’m a mongrel I guess.

I am of course not claiming that the quality of my writing is even in the same ballpark as any of those.

Em

 

[MillieDynamite]

The only problem with period writing, which I do at times, is having to do the research and not make the research a character in the book. Getting details right is important, but I have to be sure I don't over do it with details.

 

[MillieDynamite]

All of Poe's work was totally produced by AI assistance. Wait, I mean drug-induced assistance.

I love a range of authors; mostly American and English. And my own work can shift style from paragraph to paragraph.

I guess my winding parenthetical sections owe a little to Conrad, also my occasionally ambiguity.

I blame my frequent, indulgent grandiloquence and recherché lexicon on Poe. It’s all his fault.

At the other end of the spectrum, I think some of my dialog (and some of my more direct prose) reflects my liking of Steinbeck, Greene, and Orwell. I think my dialog is often less elliptical than my prose.

My writing can be quite formal - which reflects both my work (I have to write formal technical reports) and also an echo of Le Carre.

When I come over all descriptive / evocative. There is some inflected from Twain.

My periodic recourse to absurdist levity (even in dramatic situations) has elements of both Lewis Carroll and Douglas Adams.

So I’m a mongrel I guess.

I am of course not claiming that the quality of my writing is even in the same ballpark as any of those.

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

All of Poe's work was totally produced by AI assistance. Wait, I mean drug-induced assistance.

“Phantasmagoric, armorial trophies,” has always stuck in my mind as the canonical Poe phrase (from Usher).

Em

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I don't think most authors set out to copy someone's style, but we are all influenced by the books and authors that we loved.

That said, Larry Niven's rules for writers has influenced my work:

1. Writers who write for other writers should write letters.
2.Never be embarrassed or ashamed about anything you choose to write. (Think of this before you send it to a market.)
3. Stories to end all stories on a given topic, don't.
4. It is a sin to waste the reader's time.
5. If you've nothing to say, say it any way you like. Stylistic innovations, contorted story lines or none, exotic or genderless pronouns, internal inconsistencies, the recipe for preparing your lover as a cannibal banquet: feel free. If what you have to say is important and/or difficult to follow, use the simplest language possible. If the reader doesn't get it, then let it not be your fault.

6. Everybody talks first draft.


#6 is one I think about quite a bit, when characters are in a stressful fast moving situation and their dialogue is as polished as a politician's stump speech.

 

[AG31]

having to do the research and not make the research a character in the book.

Subtle but important.

 

[AG31]

I don't think most authors set out to copy someone's style, but we are all influenced by the books and authors that we loved.

That said, Larry Niven's rules for writers has influenced my work:

1. Writers who write for other writers should write letters.

I'm not sure I totally agree, but unless one is a talented professional writing for a living, I think this is pretty good advice

 

[djrip]

Like everyone else is saying, I don't emulate any specific style intentionally. But I've read a lot of Robert Jordan and Eddings and a close third person following one character or switching between a few is very ingrained in me. Rereading lotr recently I found myself wanting to take a somber tone that describes epic actions in an understated, poetic way. Another major influence is Gene Wolfe. And yes yowser, Borges. Thomas pynchon. Lovecraft, Poe. I don't write that way in my erotica usually, it's kind of funny sometimes when I look over some of my older non- erotica, which tends to be kind of full of pretentious verbiage, and want to use it for my current erotica which is much more silly and lighthearted. I end up with a piece that doesn't match the style of the stuff I wrote as erotica from the beginning. This is what happened with An Eye For Love. And the SF story I'm working on now...