Writing Voice

Do you recognise your writing voice?


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Just as our voices tend to be uniquely recognisable when speaking our writing can also be distinguishable. Whether intentional or not, there are certain markers that can give us away, or sets us apart from the rest.

Do you recognise your markers or do you have trouble distinguishing your writing from the crowd if it wasn't for remembering writing it? Maybe you are great at recognising others instead or perhaps people have told you that you are recognisable whereas you never see it? Tell me all about it!

And then to the hardest part: do you like your writing voice or do you wish to steal that of another like Ursula? If you could, whose would that be?​
 
*grumps at you. I know this thread is partially bc of my dumb emo anime bitterspicy butt.

I can recognize some markers of my writing - my narrative voice editorializes about my characters in often sarcastic ways, I'm very obsessive about how people address each other, I like long pieces of dialogue, I use a lot of onomatopoeia and sentence fragments for emphasis, and I LOVE thematic juxtapositions of language to express an idea. I also like writing characters writing each other things (usually letters). But if you were to just generally give me a piece of my writing, couldn't tell for shit. Sometimes I think, "oh, I don't write horror or tragedy or gore" or all sorts of things, and then stumble on an old piece of something I wrote and am like, "AHHH. WHAT IS THIS?"

But generally speaking, most people who've either written with me a lot or seen a lot of my writing say I have an extremely distinct narrative voice, and NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY TO CHANGE IT OR COUCH IT IN DIFFERENT LOOKING THINGS, they can often still tell. ESP YOU WA. >:[ How? Why? I dunno. I can't get rid of the pesky thing.

I would love to steal someone else's writing voice, very much. 8D Mine is... it has its merits at times, but I have deep deep envy for people like @ze_kraken and @rissa and @Aero Blue and this high school buddy of mine, who all somehow manage to weave extremely descriptive language into their writing without making it gross and purple prosey. Description is a very big weakness of mine, and when I do describe things, they tend to be dry and to-the-point, more there to set the scene as opposed to evocative in and of themselves. My high school buddy, I swore I could LITERALLY SMELLLL something he wrote once, it was uncanny. And the one time I've written with shiz, I felt like I was being dragged into his pace. I like to describe it like this scene from a manga I really like, where this like world-famous actor starts a scene and his partner CAN'T HELP but be brought into the scene and react exactly as he wants them to organically. I always thought that was BS, but that's literally how I felt writing a scene with shiz, I can't handle how good he is. *flops on face
 
*grumps at you. I know this thread is partially bc of my dumb emo anime bitterspicy butt.
OKAY THIS IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT YOURSELF, I NEVER SAID DUMB OR EMO. I also don't think having a bitterspicy anime butt is a bad thing.
 
*grumps at you. I know this thread is partially bc of my dumb emo anime bitterspicy butt.
OKAY THIS IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT YOURSELF, I NEVER SAID DUMB OR EMO. I also don't think having a bitterspicy anime butt is a bad thing.
*goes off to die in a hole of shame that anyone ever described my writing as bitterspicy anime, and that I can't refute it.
 
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*grumps at you. I know this thread is partially bc of my dumb emo anime bitterspicy butt.

I can recognize some markers of my writing - my narrative voice editorializes about my characters in often sarcastic ways, I'm very obsessive about how people address each other, I like long pieces of dialogue, I use a lot of onomatopoeia and sentence fragments for emphasis, and I LOVE thematic juxtapositions of language to express an idea. I also like writing characters writing each other things (usually letters). But if you were to just generally give me a piece of my writing, couldn't tell for shit. Sometimes I think, "oh, I don't write horror or tragedy or gore" or all sorts of things, and then stumble on an old piece of something I wrote and am like, "AHHH. WHAT IS THIS?"

But generally speaking, most people who've either written with me a lot or seen a lot of my writing say I have an extremely distinct narrative voice, and NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY TO CHANGE IT OR COUCH IT IN DIFFERENT LOOKING THINGS, they can often still tell. ESP YOU WA. >:[ How? Why? I dunno. I can't get rid of the pesky thing.

I would love to steal someone else's writing voice, very much. 8D Mine is... it has its merits at times, but I have deep deep envy for people like @ze_kraken and @rissa and @Aero Blue and this high school buddy of mine, who all somehow manage to weave extremely descriptive language into their writing without making it gross and purple prosey. Description is a very big weakness of mine, and when I do describe things, they tend to be dry and to-the-point, more there to set the scene as opposed to evocative in and of themselves. My high school buddy, I swore I could LITERALLY SMELLLL something he wrote once, it was uncanny. And the one time I've written with shiz, I felt like I was being dragged into his pace. I like to describe it like this scene from a manga I really like, where this like world-famous actor starts a scene and his partner CAN'T HELP but be brought into the scene and react exactly as he wants them to organically. I always thought that was BS, but that's literally how I felt writing a scene with shiz, I can't handle how good he is. *flops on face

LIES IM THE MOST PURPLEY OF PURPLE PROSE

//tho agreed about shiz! he wrote a post for ronaan's realm back in the day that continues to give me chills to this day its just so good.

i can easily recognize my own writing bc i abuse the hell out of commas and i unfortunately have a distinct and compulsive addiction to descriptions. also ima slut for writing about food. its constant. always. i can't stand it.

i'm aight with my writing voice; i'd like it to evolve a bit, but if i had to steal anyones itd be @firejay1 writing style tho bc sOMEHOW every. single. character. has such a distinct voice and feel within her prose. ALWAYS.
 
I have a very distinct writing voice but I could not tell you WHY AND WHAT IT IS THAT MAKES IT MINE
 
Y'know, it's funny: as a copywriter, I do a ton of writing for all sorts of businesses that will never be recognized as mine. And I spend a great deal of time making sure that the cadences, tone, and language of a piece fits the many demands a brand has for the way it expresses itself. It makes things all the more rewarding when I have the creativity to write as myself, and as a result, I feel all the more attached to seeing my own voice in what I create.

Through the haze of the many different types of writing I have done, I think poetry has been the biggest influence on the style I have now. Which isn't to say that my passages are particularly poetic (because they aren't), but that the whimsy and structure of simple poetry appeals greatly to my sense of writing aesthetics. There's so little space to make an impression and form an image, but the challenge to create something new and interesting, or to define something that is exceptionally difficult to describe is one of my favorite aspects of writing. I can taste the insanity of my cotton candy brain a mile away.
 
Y'know, it's funny: as a copywriter, I do a ton of writing for all sorts of businesses that will never be recognized as mine. And I spend a great deal of time making sure that the cadences, tone, and language of a piece fits the many demands a brand has for the way it expresses itself. It makes things all the more rewarding when I have the creativity to write as myself, and as a result, I feel all the more attached to seeing my own voice in what I create.

Through the haze of the many different types of writing I have done, I think poetry has been the biggest influence on the style I have now. Which isn't to say that my passages are particularly poetic (because they aren't), but that the whimsy and structure of simple poetry appeals greatly to my sense of writing aesthetics. There's so little space to make an impression and form an image, but the challenge to create something new and interesting, or to define something that is exceptionally difficult to describe is one of my favorite aspects of writing. I can taste the insanity of my cotton candy brain a mile away.

That is funny to think about! For work I usually have to turn on my own professional voice, in which I have to hide my own, but I don't really associate this with my general writing voice at all because it is work, and it drones on and on about the professional aspects of my job, but that is something interesting to think about since my boss does mention from time to time how my professional 'voice' is a bit too formal. 😂

I think poetry is a great way to practice at least pacing and how to create rhythm in a text, so I get you there!

And now to answer my own questions; I actually cannot recognise my own writing voice. If I leave something alone for long enough and reread it again it usually baffles me that I ever wrote that. 😂 I wouldn't also know what my markers are that makes my writing voice mine. Friends have said it is because of the straightforwardness and the stylistic simplicity, but then I also had people tell me that it is because I use big words and vivid descriptions, which feels contradictory. 😂

I am, apparently, good at picking out the writings of friends, however. Not that I know how I do it. I just read and go: yeah, that sounds like them/feels like them. Sometimes it is even a: OH, I CAN TOTALLY HEAR THEM SAY THIS IN THEIR VOICE RIGHT NOW.
 
I try to adopt my partners knack for descriptive storytelling, as in focusing on all the minor details of nearly every significant aspect of a scene when appropriate, almost obsessing over them while strongly implementing imagery and metaphor to further immerse the reader. Then its a matter of juggling and balancing all the visuals with the actually telling of the story; its always satisfying finding that groove and making a seamless transition between the figurative environment surrounding a character and the literal one, along with what's literally happening around them.
 
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I would say that I used to have a distinct writing voice. At least, amongst my peers. I remember once, when I forgot to write my name on the story I submitted, my teacher came to me and said, "Isn't this yours?" I picked out one sentence, and went, "yep. That's mine." You could say, out of my peers back then, I was the only one purple prosing, writing long sentences, abusing commas, and semicolons. My sentences had a sense of rhythm to it, and that was the way I always wrote. I would count syllables, ensuring that they fit.

I don't think I have a writing voice now, because my writing style is completely messed up. I was a completely, solely narrative writer. I avoid descriptive writing like plague. When exams came around, I will always choose narrative prompts, never descriptive. Descriptive writing requires a level of finesse and details that I lack. But closer to the state exam, they started scraping narrative writing, and they thrust me into a world of detailed writing. I had to throw away everything I knew to, you know, adapt. It got worse when I went to college, and I was made to write a total of four short, and concise sentences each paragraph that should explain everything. Bruh. I died.

Submitting stories online, and also receiving the same type of feedback, totally crushed me. For awhile, I was actually afraid of writing the way I usually do. I still am. But honestly, I think that these serve as a learning point. I explored territories I was not used to, and I learnt new ways to write. I am still learning and discovering my new writing voice. And I think. it's a journey.

TL:DR though, I used to, but now I don't. And there was someone who's writing style I admired. I disliked him, but his writing was gold. I used to be in the same roleplay group with him, and oh boy. It was always a delight to read his writing. If I would steal anyone's, it would be his.
 
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I don't think I have a particularly distinct writing style. I think it was a bit more distinctive when I was younger, just because someone had specifically told me once that my posts were quite easy to pick out from a crowd. I did have a lot more chances when I was younger to do creative writing which I think helped a lot; currently I mostly write SOPs, and I try to avoid getting stuck with those jobs whenever possible, so I'm not writing very much at all outside of some very rare RP posts.

There are so many people whose writing style I would love to steal lol. If there's anyone whom I've done more than one RP with, it's probably because I really enjoy their writing and I would probably steal it if I could.
 
Ah-uh. An interesting question. I like to classify my style as "functional" and I'll admit to shamelessly ripping off the likes of Lyon Sprague de Camp and Sean A. Moore for their simplistic, but incredibly flexible styles. (Which might have something to do with me discovering Conan at a very young age :P)

I'm plenty descriptive when it comes to roleplay, but not in a manner that comes off as foppish or overbearing. I was told a few times that my writing is "neither concise nor flowery, but rather fluid" and I've made it my aim to retain that standard ever since.
 
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I've been meaning to run an event with some friends on iwaku where we read out anonymized excerpts, 100-200 words, multiple per person, and try to guess who wrote them >:D
 
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