This is a discussion on "What sets your writing apart?" in the Writing Questions forum.
Creativity on a whole, i think, and pressing in large amounts of back-story throughout the entire story without it clunking any paragraphs. I've been told I'm pretty good at that, but then just genre-wise, I think my ability to combine different aspects of horror and fantasy to make something unique to my style.
I think perhaps I am following a rather traditional route: taking the familiar and making it new in some way. Or the classic Goethe quote about finding the universal in the ordinary. Right now I'm trying to revisit the trope of dragons as beasts, when current trend has them as geniuses just slightly more intelligent than men (thinking of Eragon, Naomi Novik, etc.). I think it would be fun and new to tinker with a cross-section of the ordinary and fantastic--what's family life and dynamic like when everyone is a wizard? What sorts of adventures would this family experience, and what new problems arise when everyone can use magic? In "ordinary" literature, we know of divorce, feuds, favoritism, and other family ills. How would this play out with wizards? I haven't really seen anything on the fantasy book shelf about this particular idea, so I'm hoping it's distinctive (but I'm definitely not ruling out that it's been done before).
What sets my writing apart? At the moment, very little indeed. I'm basically crap, but I'm working on it. :P
I guess I like to use punchy, concise descriptions with a visceral focus on my viewpoint characters' senses, along with decidedly snarky and self-conscious (third-person limited) narration. I like the idea of giving my readers a clear image of what's going on with as few words as possible so I can pack in the humour, philosophical tangents, or whatever else.
In terms of the actual content of my stories, I shy away from your traditional High Medieval western European setting (for example - I'm currently writing something set in its own world's equivalent of late Antiquity, in a setting that is equal parts Persian and Roman empires in terms of influence). I also like hybridising elements from all across the genre scale (thanks, China!), complex rule-based magic systems (thanks, Brandon!) and a sort-of-emphasis on the political side of things (thanks, George!).
Last edited by Helbrecht; 8-22-11 at 6:41 AM.
Generally speaking, very little except my dislike of predictable love stories and a tendency towards archaic sentence structure... but ultimately I hope that I'll be able to write stories which put the 'human' back in fantasy. I don't want to examine the trials of the newly born vampire or the girl who discovers she's the descendant of an angel, a devil and three werewolves () - instead I hope to use fantasy/magical realism to create scenarios in which I can examine what it means to be human.
Which is probably why I haven't been able to finish even one story this year >.>
Mine's fusion fantasy. An element of that, for instance, is that from my work in film, my work tends to rely heavily on dialogue.
My main character and her background is the only thing that came from me. Other things from other authors I thought were cool are Dragon Riders and Shapeshifters they're in my story. Basically my story gets to the end of the story with a bang, that leaves you coming back for more just because you purely enjoy reading it, regardless of syntax or structure. My story is going to go on forever since my main character can live forever, and my mind is so full of ideas that I can continue writing about her forever.
I'm really not sure. I am a fledgling writer, and while my inner author instinct tells me that every author is different and has something else to offer, I'll probably go with...I really don't know. I'm not a special snowflake, so to speak.
I don't know what actually sets me apart, but I know what I'd like it to be: First, strong storytelling, where each character does things that make sense within their experience and the plot is good. Second, invisible prose, so that the reader feels like they're looking through a book-shaped window instead of reading words.
Right now I feel like my strength is characters, my weakness is plot, and my prose is somewhere in between.
Well, this is simple
Strengths: Dialogue, Overall plot, Humor
Weaknesses: Detail, Using a Thesaurus, I tend to have strange word choice at times
Distinction: My characters constantly poke fun at all of the fantasy tropes, make slight nods and parodies of classic fantasy, and one of them tries to find every character's DND alignment.(Doesn't actually mention DND)
(This is a highly shortened version of the scene. There would be much more description of Diamonvale. But I just wanna get the joke out.)
"Oh thank Gravton!" Victor dropped his bags and shouted! "We've finally made it to Diamonvale!" He ran his hand over the diamond walls of the city.
"Umm..." His face filled with curiosity. "Where is the gate? No doors, no windows... How the Hell are we supposed to get in?!" Ronin wagged his finger at Victor.
"Hmph. One does not simply walk into Diamonvale."
I'm neither confident nor experienced enough to really know my strengths, but I know what I'd like to say; setting the tone, achieving plot structure somewhere between familiar and unique, and believable characters. At the moment, I'd say my weaknesses are organisation, motivation, vocabulary (although it's nothing a dictionary and thesaurus can't fix), and unwillingness to make bold decisions (for example, scrapping sections of a story, completely re-writing, etc).
Last edited by Johnny Cosmo; 9-14-11 at 9:22 PM.
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