Support for Indie Authors discussion

What do you consider to be your defining traits, as an author? What themes, writing styles or just quirks make your work jump out and be identifiable as yours?

I explore the different types of "strong females" and highlight those differences in my characters. I also apparently tend to flip gender roles on their head, according to one reviewer ;)

Bad grammar. Every book has at least one character who gleefully butchers the English language either because of their ignorance of it or as a stylistic choice.

Mostly I write rude women...

I'm not afraid to go dark and explore the depths of humanity. Whether it's a hero turned anti-hero or someone who is a straight up villain, I dive right into the mindsets of what these characters would be like and try to make them real, and relatable.

Probably drugs. For some reason a lot of my characters tend to use them in one form or another. Ironic considering how the worst I do is smoke a bit of pot. I don't even drink alcohol x D

Impulsivity. I generally write what I want and let the chips fall where they may. I may need to revisit this tactic later but for now it works for me.

I've got sentence frags and choppy transitions coming out the yin yang. And yes, both are intentional. Have inner thoughts constantly interrupting the dialogue too. Also intentional. Tee hee.

Oh, and of course, the whole physically wounded hero thing...

*content sigh*

Quirky characters, I think. Most of my reviews mention my characters. One person tickled me by calling them "spectacularly weird". I want all of the people in my stories, even side characters, to have unique voices.

I'm strong on dialogue, not so strong on plot or description. That's unfortunate, because I hate writing something that feels "done". I want my stories to be unique, not same-old same-old. But I suck at original plots. So most of my plots are twists on classic tales. Once I have the bones of the plot, I can twist things around to my heart's content, until it feels like something truly different.

I honestly don't know mine. I think it could be that I like to add a little bit of humor even in the most gloomy parts, but it's hard to say since I've only written one series so far...

Christina wrote: "Bad grammar. Every book has at least one character who gleefully butchers the English language either because of their ignorance of it or as a stylistic choice."

BOGY!!!! best English butcher evah!

Another of your trait (I think) might be that in almost all your stories you have a maimed character. :)

There's actually quite a few trademarks in my writing. Some members here have picked up on some of them. Stuff that is usually, but not always, included in my stories:

* The name of one or more U.S. Presidents
* A whole line delivered in a foreign language with no translation
* References to books, movies, TV shows I like
* There's almost always a fart joke
* One or more biblical references
* I have, a few times, inserted Indie authors that that have been supportive of me into my work somewhere
* I have several fictional chains of stores, restaurants, products, etc. that crop up in almost every book

As for style and theme... too varied.

My stories all tend to center around themes of identity; characters finding out they're not who they thought they were, or characters changed into something else via curse/bloodline/wrong place wrong time, and having to deal with a fundamental change to their reality. Like it's not enough for a character to find out their world isn't the way they thought it was, they also end up becoming part of that world and redefining who they are.

And going by reviews/feedback I'm apparently pretty good at coming up with crazy other worlds.

Also I really like snakes and the ocean so those end up in my work a lot.

Similar to Dwayne, I pepper my writing with names of people who I consider have done wonderful things but have received little recognition and this is my way of thanking them.

But I wouldn't call that my 'style'. Just a quirk and I hope readers recognize the connection.

Hint: one of my books thanks unsung codebreakers in the Second World War.

I'm too close to my writing to analyze its style and I am somewhat in awe of those who know their own style.

I guess the most noticeable things that stand out would be:
- references to music and movies and catch phrases
- every business that is mentioned (mainly restaurants - as my characters all love to eat) are all fictitious. I love coming up with names of people and places.
- lots of characters get busted for something they've done, even when no one else knows about it ands it's not even connected to the crimes being solved, because God always brings sin to light.
- character traits (whether physical or mental) that are somewhat unique

A lot of "main" characters in a fast-paced story :)

O_o

The voice of my stories tends to shift depending on the mood/theme of the story.

I'd like to think that I tend to write more idea driven stories than is common (because I only write SF and am hugely influenced by Philip K Dick), but I'm not sure I'm really successful at that.

I gravitate toward dialog more than description, but there's plenty of exposition scattered around the stories as well. Also, I typically write stories that do not rely on a lot of action scenes. Also, I write more at the level of individual characters whose actions affect only themselves and a relatively small set of other characters rather than entire planets, governments, galaxies, empires, etc.

There is humor in most of my work, but probably a lot of readers might not see it. It's more of a subtle private kind of humor that hinges on understated social commentary which doesn't lend itself to punchlines or clever quotable lines.

I do have several themes that get explored a lot because they will likely become real issues that we'll need to address once our technological society approaches the point where Earth is no longer humanity's only habitat, and when we're able to direct our own evolution through augmentation of our bodies using biotech, nanotech, cybernetic implants and all the rest of that. Some of the themes I have explored or will soon be exploring are:

* Human-directed evolution in space habitats and on exoplanets which basically expresses itself as an explosion of speciation (humans become the aliens we don't find already "out there").
* Posthumanity: the weird varieties of humans/machines/cyborgs/synthetic beings that could exist once we have complete control over our genetics, and when we can transfer human minds into non-organic bodies.
* Ethical challenges presented by the above.
* The morally uncomfortable social structures that will likely become necessary for survival of small populations who live in closed environments such as generation ships and remote space stations or bio-dome communities. (Hint: liberal humanist/capitalist societies are unlikely in those environments given their extreme fragility and the amount of effort required to ensure they remain viable for centuries or more.)
* Trans-dimensional travel
* Technological immortality

I also really admire Kurt Vonnegut's work, and I think I've picked up his habit of writing main characters who are most often loners and not natural leaders/people of action.

Oh...and several readers have mentioned that I tend to write about subjects that have already been written about for a long time, but manage to put a new twist on them. If that is so, then that's what I mean to do for sure **shifty eyes**

[quite a long post for someone who has a hard time figuring out what his style is ... I know it when I read it.]

Run-on sentences and gratuitous descriptions of small things. Where I can, I put these together. Why just say someone put their drink on a coffee table when you can not only describe the origin and composition of the drink and the nature of the glass containing it, but the appearance and history of the coffee table, with an aside about the Hindu temple whose statues inspired the carvings on said coffee table?

Doing this with at least one colon, two or more semi-colons and a flurry of em-dashes is best.

Better yet, insert this between a long semi-coherent ramble by a character that may or not be germane to the plot, and the answer of the person he is talking to.

Make sure that person's answer is, "Yes."

Leaving out the words "to" and "not". The latter especially can create glorious confusion.

Also, using commas both erratically and erroneously. Commas are like itsy-bitsy caltrops, which when employed cunningly, wreak lovely havoc. (I haven't truly mastered the misuse of semi-colons yet. I'm working on that.)

Also, untranslated Latin tags, sometimes mangled. (These are usually explained in the notes at the end, however.)

Cussin'. [Our characters do not tend to curse.]

Critters. Critters show up a lot. They rarely have much to do with anything. They don't need to. Critters don't need a reason for anything. They're critters after all.

One or more the characters is a smart-ass. Usually more. All right, a lot more. (I accept no responsibility for this.)

I have no idea what my style is, I've been told my "Voice" and "style" is consistent and well done, but I have zero idea of what I've done to get it that way.

I write about normal people.

So, I write romance, and I don't write about Cowboys or shrieks or Greek tycoons or billionaire baby daddys. I write about people.

The folks at the traditional publishers aren't really interested in real people...

Now that I think about it I realize the overriding theme in my books is forgiveness. Maybe it's because I write about characters who start out being helpless and hopeless and end up being restored, forgiven. Also, I love metaphors.

A lot of my stories have the theme of a regular person doing the right thing in the face of someone abusing their authority. That's something I've done a million different ways.

As shocking as it sounds, I am never certain if I have a style or signature theme. I write the stories that I feel most drawn to, without thought of such things, and they just don't all fit into such labels. But, when I look at most of what I write, and try to reverse engineer what seems to draw me in as a story teller, I'd probably have to say little tweaks. Small brief moments that either alter the larger picture, or, if not, blowing up small moments under a microscope to make them more interesting and dramatic. The momentary as epic, perhaps. The everyday as heroic. The oddity of the instant.

My heroes are always military men but NOT Navy Seals EVER! There are more Navy Seals in romance novels than all of the Navy Seals who ever lived. My guys are just regular guys being quiet heroes and damaged by the experience. So PTSD is one of my main themes. The women are from military families themselves and therefore relate to the men because they have experience from former lovers, brothers and fathers.
As far as style... I tend to start light and progress to darker as the story goes along and the heroes damage manifest. The heroine has to pull the hero back to the light through her understanding and love. Sometimes the role may be reversed and the hero has to do that for her.
I tend to under comma, so I find run on sentences. My historical novels have a very different feel than the contemporaries. Contemporaries are first person POV. Historical tends to be much more formal and third person because that was the 19th century writing style. They are Civil War era.

The way my narration reads is how I talk in real life (without the slight bit of slang I happen to use). Being that my books are fantasy, it adds a cool modern feel to it- 'Cool' is one of those words you won't see in it though ;)

I think sometimes it is hard to self identify a defining trait that may be very obvious to readers. I write children's books and I feel that my tales are very different in themes and characters. My style would be tying my training as a speech-language pathologist and my love of writing together. Each book is centered around a different sound in the English language to help with speech development.

G.G. wrote: "I honestly don't know mine. I think it could be that I like to add a little bit of humor even in the most gloomy parts, but it's hard to say since I've only written one series so far...

Christina ..."

I really appreciate writing that adds comic relief throughout the story!

What a fascinating question. I think my style is relatively informal and I fear that sometimes I might not describe things in an immersive enough way. Though I'm not absolutely sure what my style is, I can point out some common themes that have popped up several times.

I have so far tended to write stories with a main character in a third person perspective but following that character closely enough that you know what they are thinking, at least to some degree. I tend to write stories with one main thread, not complex braided narratives. That may change soon but I don't think I'd attempt anything with more than one main storyline right now.

So far my protagonists are fairly humble, sometimes with hidden strengths, and the theme tends to involve some type of discovery about an ability or strength within themselves. My main characters tend to be fairly self reliant. Even the short story about the cat had the main character looking for food, shelter, etc, rather than begging others for it.

My main characters tend not to entirely cleave to gender norms, are relatively introspective, and are generally kind. My secondary characters probably aren't mean enough/nasty enough/troublesome enough to cause proper conflict. I'm working on that, too.

If I write in a fantasy setting, it tends to be a low magic, fairly rational context. I have to remind myself to add confrontation and conflict to my work.

Underdog heroes. Lots and lots of underdog heroes. Most especially underdogs who at first seem rather weak, pathetic, helpless, uninteresting, etc but are actually tougher than they seem or who eventually end up kicking butt and taking names. I also have a lot of themes that center around hope or the light at the end of the tunnel.

Color and description.

I tend to use color in my books to convey mood. If the mood is ominous, there might be a lot of inky black, or slate gray. If I want to convey that there's still hope, the orange glow of torchlight or a hearth fire might come into play. Prisms of sparkling light mean Flit the fairy is near. Blue and gold are valiant colors for my MC, purple almost always denotes royalty, and angry red is an important emotional color for my second MC, who spent the first years of his life as a slave in the dye fields.

Um...
cAPS lOCK? LoL

I certainly have a book layout style that is unique! :D
Besides that, I always include:

- An onomatopoeia as the first word that relates to the theme of the series.
- A joke about the book cover.
- Someone saying nothing but a ♥!
- A blurb that follows the same layout.

I like to take my work seriously. This doesn't mean there isn't humor in my work; nor does it mean other authors don't take their work seriously (we all do). It means my characters behave how I feel they'd respond given the situation. I like to use the "sentient evil meatloaf" example. If meatloaf killed diners, then either everyone needs to stop ordering meatloaf (because they know the threat) or they freak out realistically when meatloaf attacks (they don't know the threat). I think a lot of stories about suicide missions and near-impossible odds like to gloss over the ugly adverse effects (e.g. death, trauma, PTSD, etc). Authors of these stories have their reasons for doing this, but my dedication to A leads to B leads to C is what makes up my style. That, and 80's pop culture references.