Imitating Authorial Styles

[ElectricBlue]

I've still not read any Mickey Spillane, but several people said of last year's entry (this year, I started, but got far too side-tracked to finish), that I nailed it. One person even said I could be his daughter, which was a little confusing, but got sorted out.

That's the only "someone else's style" I've ever attempted, because from a literary point of view, I only partly understand how I write the way I do, EB style. I have a vague idea, but I can't decompose it.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Back in my music journalism days, I probably tried way too hard to, if not emulate, at least live up to the spirit of Lester Bangs.

 

[Lovecraft_Lore]

I tried to write in the style HP Lovecraft when I first started. His pose hard to copy. It is more fun to poke fun at the Cthulhu Mythos and use that to poke fun at the world than to do what HP Lovecraft did, which was to see some Italians down by the river then use that to write how what he saw was Indescribable Cosmic HORROR!


We had trekked for three days, deep into the back woods of New England. The Color, that's a Sound, that's a Smell was said to dwell deep in an abandoned cabin unseen by human eyes in more than tenth year.

"I think we're there. I can smell its putrid odor." I whispered, my nose running from the rank stench, watching the haunting glow of the Indescribable light grow ever closer, it' luminescence peeking through the branches of the leafless trees.

"That's me. I just shit myself." Larry whispered back, his quivering voice betraying his fear.

 

[SimonDoom]

I came across Lovecraft when I was about 15 and the cosmic nihilism of his tales gripped my imagination. His stories have influenced me so much and I have written several tales based on his mythos. However, I never tried to emulate his style as being beyond me. Anyway, despite his prolix description, I only really realized what an Elder Thing looked like when I saw an illustration. That said, his tales of cosmic terror are unbeatable.

I'm in my 50s and I had heard of, but never read, Lovecraft until this year. I bought an anthology of stories. I appreciated that his stuff was ahead of his time in many ways, and I agree that his strength was in conveying cosmic dread, but apart from that I couldn't get into his writing. His style violates almost every imaginable principle of good writing that most writers take for granted today. He doesn't do much with his characters. The format's always--always--the same: the narrator relays the narration of another person who experienced something horrible. I think in a way it gives Lovecraft an excuse to play it safe: he doesn't have to describe too much because his narrator wasn't at the scene.

H.G. Wells was writing horror and science fiction around the same time, and IMO he was much better. I also think Edgar Allen Poe, who wrote decades before Lovecraft, was a better horror writer. But I give Lovecraft his due. I don't know if there's a real connection but he seems like a precursor to much of today's horror fiction.

One could try to imitate Lovecraft, but I don't think it would be much fun.

 

[Lucy_Lastic]

I just finished Hollywood.

 

[Probus888]

I'm in my 50s and I had heard of, but never read, Lovecraft until this year. I bought an anthology of stories. I appreciated that his stuff was ahead of his time in many ways, and I agree that his strength was in conveying cosmic dread, but apart from that I couldn't get into his writing. His style violates almost every imaginable principle of good writing that most writers take for granted today. He doesn't do much with his characters. The format's always--always--the same: the narrator relays the narration of another person who experienced something horrible. I think in a way it gives Lovecraft an excuse to play it safe: he doesn't have to describe too much because his narrator wasn't at the scene.

H.G. Wells was writing horror and science fiction around the same time, and IMO he was much better. I also think Edgar Allen Poe, who wrote decades before Lovecraft, was a better horror writer. But I give Lovecraft his due. I don't know if there's a real connection but he seems like a precursor to much of today's horror fiction.

One could try to imitate Lovecraft, but I don't think it would be much fun.

I have just re-read 'The Island of Dr Moreau', which I found terrifying with the Beastmen reverting to animals and the cruelty of Moreau himself. I first read it a long time ago and it stuck in my mind. That said, Lovecraft's 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is probably the single most frightening story - unless maybe Stephen King's 'Pet Semetery'.

 

[Omenainen]

Have any of you consciously tried to write in another writer’s style? Were you happy with what you produced? Learn anything?

I can’t do that in English. I can only write in the way I do. Anyway my process is so instinctive that I couldn’t tell what influences it and how, though I’m sure many things do.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I have just re-read 'The Island of Dr Moreau', which I found terrifying with the Beastmen reverting to animals and the cruelty of Moreau himself. I first read it a long time ago and it stuck in my mind. That said, Lovecraft's 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is probably the single most frightening story - unless maybe Stephen King's 'Pet Semetery'.

The funny thing about "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is that it can be quite uplifting, in a way that HPL almost certainly didn't intend.

He wrote quite a few stories about the horror of having something Italian monstrous lurking in one's ancestry. In all the others that I can recall, that discovery leads to the protagonist's destruction, often by way of insanity. Robert Olmstead, OTOH, ultimately embraces what he is. I expect HPL saw that as the worst possible outcome: a man too far gone even to recognise his duty to destroy himself. But from another perspective, it's a hopeful ending.

 

[KeithD]

I can't even consciously write in my own style, yet.

Which is the best way of having your own writing voice--not being conscious of having one. Just letting it happen naturally.

 

[Omenainen]

Which is the best way of having your own writing voice--not being conscious of having one. Just letting it happen naturally.

This sounds a lot better than “this is the only way I know how”, so maybe I will start saying this instead

 

[MillieDynamite]

Interesting.

Of the 13 Hammered entries, one indeed was Humor and Satire. (Mine would have been the second.) I wonder if that's because the 'imitation' ends up being so far removed from your 'normal' voice it feels like play-acting?

Sounds like it was worth the effort.

While it is true that Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, my imitation is more about the feeling those I emulate, produce than the manner they write. While Bram Stoker wrote in typical Victorian English, filled with long flowery sentences, I can't pen that kind of verbiage. I use shorter sentences and some Victorian wording, concentrate on the emotional impact, and copy that portion of Stoker's style. I try and obtain the type of imagery he did but in my own way of writing. The same is true when I try and write like Raymond Chandler. I use the lingo of the 30s and 40s because they are set then, but it's only my style influenced by their method. I don't think I could directly copy other writers' uniqueness and hope my writing is equally unique if I attempt to create the same feel.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Which is the best way of having your own writing voice--not being conscious of having one. Just letting it happen naturally.

I think I only really recognized that I have my own voice when I consciously tried to write in a different one.