Do you have any signature elements to your writing?

[FrancesScott]

I think I have a few, but one that occurs to me is what I might call intentional repetition, there is probably a more learned word for it. What I mean is things like these not actually drawn from any story, but I do this a lot:

I felt an inner warmth. A warmth that somehow felt familiar, evocative even.

I realized that I was trembling. A trembling that was only growing as her hand slid lower.

I normally am hawklike in hacking away any repeated words, but find myself doing it on purpose sometimes. For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not claiming I invented this, just that I use it.

Do you have any distinctive elements to your writing.

 

[Carmina24]

Do I have signature elements?
Yes—but they weren’t chosen. They emerged. Over time. Through rewrites. Through the ache of letting go of lines I loved, and learning to trust the ones that stayed.

I write with restraint, but never distance.
My style leans into feeling—subtle, layered, sometimes sensual, always deliberate. I favor pauses that carry weight, and sentences that say more in silence than with flourish.

There’s almost always duality in my work: gentle and sharp, mystery and clarity, tension and surrender.
I rarely rush. I build. And if you feel something stir beneath the words—
that’s the part I never edit out.
—
Postscript:
I used to think my voice wasn’t loud enough. But over time, I’ve learned that lingering is its own kind of power.
Now, I write not to impress— but to reach. And if I’ve reached one reader,
then I’ve done what I came to do.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Signature elements? For me it's more like annoying habits.
Wanting the reader to see the characters clearly, I focus a lot on facial expression Too much in my book.

"Why don'tcha come up and see me sometime," the bombshell said with an alluring smile.
Tom's mouth dropped open in awe. "Are you talking to me, Ms. West?"
Mae's face screwed up in a 'don't be ridiculous' expression. "Well, you're the only man in the room, silly boy."

I don't do it every line like this, but enough that I have to trim quite a bit through the editing process.

 

[NotWise]

I've never spent much time analyzing my own stories. It seems like a form of naval-gazing. But, now that you mention it, I also use repetition as a tool. I learned it long ago as an oratorical method and applied it to writing. I also edit out all but the most affective repetitions.

 

[lovecraft68]

I write in what a beta reader described as a staccato beat.

I write a paragraph then a single 'dramatic' line.

"Paragraph about desiring an older woman and how normal it is"

Except when she's your mother.

Next paragraph.

Law and Order has this dramatic beat during an important line or scene break and my wife always yells "Duh duh duh!" when they do it, she says that's the feeling she gets with how I write those single lines.

 

[FrancesScott]

naval-gazing

Is that a ship kink?

 

[NotWise]

Is that a ship kink?

One I didn't know about, I guess.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Let’s see.

I am wary of formalized style guides. While useful, all too often they remind me of the Discworld Fools’ Guild, with progress through the Guild ranks… achieved through hours of rote memorization of the seventy-three approved subclasses of pun, the listed pratfalls and the accepted jokes, which must go through a twenty-year approval process before they are passed by the Council of Fun.

I care about grammar and spelling, but also realize that they are there to serve us, not the other way around.

I am cheerfully guilty of crediting the reader with a decent vocabulary.

 

[Erozetta]

Does my actual signature on my book covers count?

Otherwise, I genuinely don't know anything about my own writing.

 

[THBGato]

Right now I have an addiction to the words "still" and "now" that I'm still trying to beat.

**re-reads post**

Oh, for fuck's sake...

 

[yowser]

All the women are strong, the men are conflicted, and everyone's looks are about average.

 

[PrimalDual]

One signature element I often add is a nod to my own mild foot fetish, by including a description of a woman's toes when it doesn't necessarily add to the plot*. I could easily leave it out but it amuses me, on a par with Hitchcock making cameo appearances in his own films I suppose.

As others have suggested, I'm sure any reader of more than two of my stories** would be able to tell me of signatures I'm not even aware of.


* Huh. Maybe I should write a story where it is central to the plot, and get it out of my system.
** Currently only me

 

[Areala-chan]

There's almost always some aspect or reference to poetry in my works. Sometimes it's blatant, sometimes it's subtle. Many of main characters are bookish and a bit nerdy/geeky in nature. It's just what I like.

 

[PrimalDual]

Mae's face screwed up in a 'don't be ridiculous' expression. "Well, you're the only man in the room, silly boy."

Mae's face screwed up in a 'don't be ridiculous' expression. "Don't be ridiculous. You're the only man in the room, silly boy."

You're welcome.

 

[OddLove]

I think my most prevalent signature would be grammatical mistakes.

I riddle them through out all my stories to remind people how hard I worked to get my GED.

 

[THBGato]

Actually, what I'd like to think of as my signature style is the use of varieties of English in dialogue. So far, I've used:
- MLE
- genz slang
- Spanglish
- Welsh English
- Bristolian of varying degrees
- valley girl
- Bajan English
- New Zealand English
- US English

Currently writing a story that will require two different versions of Kenyan English. Fun times! Having to brush up on my Sheng.

 

[AG31]

I've been here for four years now and it took me most of that time to reconcile myself to the fact that my choice of story is almost unique My stories are almost all about strong men who surrender to something with dignity. So I guess you could call that a signature.

In addition, my writing has been called formal, static (in a good way), and I've been told that I "like a tableau."

 

[PrimalDual]

Actually, what I'd like to think of as my signature style is the use of varieties of English in dialogue.

Kudos to you if you can pull it off believably. A kindly Lit editor advised me to get the fuck rid of the Scottish dialect in my story. I took his advice to heart, and replotted it so that my American couple was vacationing in Kentucky instead, where I felt more confident in the vocal inflections.

 

[crookedletter]

Run-on sentences. (And fragments.)

 

[PennyThompson]

Run-on sentences. (And fragments.)

A work friend who has a background in literature once told me I have an abusive relationship with compound sentences

 

[Bamagan]

Mostly Osmium. Occasionally some Radon and Molybdenum.

 

[redgarters]

I'm not sure I'm the best to judge my own signatures. My lovely beta readers probably know some signature moves that elude me.
I tend to try to give the reader a feeling for who the characters are and why they behave like they do, rather than describe their looks and actions in detail. For example in the story I'm writing now the MC isn't described much other than she is short haired, a bit muscular and has some scars. That she's taller than her love interest is implied rather than described. I like the reader to have the freedom to imagine their own version of her, and my characters in general. It's a big part of the magic of reading I think.
I'm bad at using contractions (or not) as a style tool and I think most of my characters speak too similarly because I'm crap at showing dialects in writing.
And I write nearly exclusively in 1st person pov past tense. I'm scared of trying anything else.
Theres probably a lot more.

 

[lovecraft68]

Right now I have an addiction to the words "still" and "now" that I'm still trying to beat.

**re-reads post**

Oh, for fuck's sake...

Was it friends that had the bit about people turning a woman's constant saying of "But um..." into a drinking game?

 

[TheLobster]

Yes, I do have signature elements (that point) to my writing. Here's an example:

 

[Innocent302]

Academic cultural satire - with the series most personal to myself, I try to skewer academic culture, particularly the Cambridge (UK) scene, with insider observations that feel authentic and biting. However, I guess the readers will be the best judge of my efforts!