What Makes Your Writing Different?

[Philip Overby]

Something I was just thinking about today: what makes my writing different than what other people are already producing? Readers sometimes may say, "I liked this better when [insert name] did it." So what makes your writing stand out from the pack? I'm not talking originality of plot and characters (although if that's your strong suit, say so), I'm just talking about what is that one special thing your writing has that others may not?

Is it your style?

Is it your themes?

Is it your subject matter?

Is it your way with words?

Is it your ability to make an audience laugh, cry, or do a bit of both?

What have beta readers and others told you about your writing that makes you stand up and say, "I am unique"? Do you even feel like you have anything different to offer? If you don't, then what is your overall goal of writing? To write what others have already, but better? To entertain yourself and your friends? To make loads of money?

I know those are a lot of questions, so just feel free to answer how you like.

 

[Ophiucha]

I think worldbuilding is a big part of it with me. My settings are usually more modern - but not urban fantasy. Like, my current project takes place in another world that is heavily inspired by American history, primarily the 1950s. My magic systems are usually a bit abstract, as well. My big worldbuilding project is a music-inspired magic system, but with literally every sound having a magical resonance. The more harmonious (and loud) the sound is, the greater the effect, but even a simple sound like a footstep on pavement could create a little spark or the lightest magical breeze. It varies from story to story, but I definitely shy away from more typical fantasy settings and magic systems.

Otherwise, the only thing that really stands out is how little dialogue there is in my novels compared to many authors. I definitely tend more towards 'she asked him to pass the salt' than ' ''could you pass the salt?'' she asked'. I would attribute this to the both the authors I like who do the same and the fact that I haven't written a story without a mute protagonist since I was in high school.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

hmm... I'm a little hesitant to proclaim our uniqueness, though I do think we're going in a bit of a different direction with our main female series lead. In a deviation from the current urban fantasy norm of a fierce, gun-toting heroine, Winter Mulcahy is very quiet, reserved, and definately not a physical combatant. She is a wizard, a potions master and healer who runs a small shop in the city's Historical District, and uses her back room as a clinic and emergency surgery for the city's preternatural population. In one of the early chapters of the first book, we find Winter fighting a small, hairy goblin in an attempt to banish it from this realm. She is successful, barely, and we basically get to see her nearly get handed by a demon the size of a couch cushion. Where she shines, however, is in her compassion for the people around her and her iron-clad resolve to keep the peace in a city teetering on the edge of chaotic factional conflict. She will rise to be considered by many to be the greatest potions master of her generation, as was her great-grandmother before her. Winter has become addicted to stimulants (potions, caffiene) in her efforts to keep pace with her crushing responsibilties - where once an entire family of wizards kept the peace in her city, she now stands alone, with only a few friends who's safety she is reluctant to compromise to stand by her.

Our series, and indeed most of our major projects, are very character driven, so we work with a lot of social themes. Sexuality, abuse, families, good/evil, power/integrity, redemption, etc. We REALLY don't write for kids! We try to portray our characters as realistically as possible. We don't do fluffy, light-hearted action, but neither do we write nihilistic distopias. Life is tragic, and silly, and where there is pain and sorrow there is also joy and hope. We have silliness, and we have gallows humor. I'm hoping that we can connect with readers on an emotional level, but I think the best thing we can do is present the story as realistically as possible and let it speak for itself.

We have many characters who are centuries, even millenia old, and have to take their unique world-views into consideration. One of the characters in the city is the vampire King, who is an 1100-year-old Viking. He is a product of his time, with all the baggage that comes with it in modern interactions. He is gregarious, fiercely loyal, terrible with money, quick to quarrel, and doesn't understand "no" means "no." He is also gay, and the father of a young vampire Prince (our term for a born vampire) who we get to watch grow as the series progresses.

The series is fairly complex, and far reaching. It's a multi-generational family saga, at the heart, where the final goal is to bring about the end of the 3rd Age of Man. So, yeah, it's gonna be big lol!

Magically, we're pretty complicated. We have different magical systems for many different races - wizards, dragons, old gods, faeries, just to name the major ones. And, as part of the main story, we bring in another - the mages, who were thought extinct at the end of the second age and are being reborn into the modern era. Their magic is so powerful and feared that wizards have hunted them for millenia with the hopes of killing them before they rise to full maturity, and the only power that has a hope of standing against a fully mature mage is a god. The last time mages and gods went head-to-head, the gods lost.

Our main motivations for writing? At the end of the day, it's to write what we want to read. We love stories with gripping characters who move through complex developmental archs. We also love fantasy, and urban fantasy in particular, though we also write high fantasy and space opera. So, why not stuff everything we love into one story?

 

[Feo Takahari]

The word that keeps coming up in comments on my writing is "sympathetic". My protagonists are generally likeable folks, and I'm apparently pretty good at making readers root for them.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I don't know that I'd call it unique but I feel as if I have a pretty good idea of how to write fight scenes. Another strength would be in revealing information slow & naturally...leading the reader (sometimes misleading) to assumptions about what might happen. Doing this well helps to suck a reader in, and makes them want to know if they are correct. Third, ending chapters with new questions or small, vague reveals that make the reader want to turn the next page.

 

[TheokinsJ]

I would say that everything you've listed is important. Writer's write in different ways, with different styles, some are straight to the point and direct with their approach to writing a story, others use imagery to almost paint a picture of what is happening. The subject matter (Plot and characters) is very important, that's the standout thing that makes the story unique, however in terms of the act of writing, drawing on the reader's emotions and having them care or hate about your characters, feeling their pain and their adventure, that is I think, a major one.

 

[Philip Overby]

Third, ending chapters with new questions or small, vague reveals that make the reader want to turn the next page.

I think this is an excellent skill to have. Sometimes I feel like some may not do that very much. I try to do the same thing in my writing: give the reader any sort of hook to want to go to the next chapter.

 

[Steerpike]

I think this is an excellent skill to have. Sometimes I feel like some may not do that very much. I try to do the same thing in my writing: give the reader any sort of hook to want to go to the next chapter.

Read Robert Crais. The guy is a master at this. Michael Connelly too.

 

[Philip Overby]

Something I've been told I'm good at is injecting humor into my stories or just having humorous stories period. There aren't a whole lot of people doing comic fantasy (maybe I'm just out of the loop) right now other than Terry Pratchett, A. Lee Martinez, and some others who aren't necessarily considered fantasy writers (Christopher Moore for example). I want people to read my books and laugh or have a good time reading them. Not feel like they're a slough to get through. So hopefully that is my major plus: my humor.

 

[Steerpike]

It's nice to be able to identify certain authors by style. That's a feature that is less valued in the homogenization or genericizing (whether that's a word or not) of popular fiction. There are still stylistically-diverse writers out there, but I think we're finding less that an author can distinguish an author as "different."

 

[Philip Overby]

For me, Abercrombie and Erikson both write dark stories with certain similar elements in them. But it's their styles that stand out to me. If you gave me an Erikson quote and not told me who the author was, I could immediately tell you. Same with Abercrombie. Some writers you can't do that with. It's like when I was in high school we read lots of Ernest Hemingway. To this day, I could probably point out a Hemingway passage from a mile away. His style was very specific. I think that's a big thing that makes writers stand-out amongst the crowd. Just that strong "voice" that so many advice articles say to find.

 

[advait98]

Yeah, I guess style and voice are major determinants in distinguishing a writer. As well as everything else that has been said.
Every writer has his own little characteristics in voice (however hard that is to build) or style or emotions, etc. that I find practically impossible to pinpoint. But i guess that is another step toward the enlightenment of the writer. Hope I get there soon enough.

 

[glutton]

1 - female nonmagical warriors who are 85-100% as strong as the strongest men in their worlds (eg. 7' 400 lb mountains of muscle) and show it by punching it out and matching strength with them.

2 - nonmagical warriors, male and female, who do ridiculous feats like chucking boulders, surviving skyscraper height falls, shrugging off gut wounds, cleaving through a fort-sized dragon's jaw in one swing, etc. with no other explanation beyond just how man/woman they are... or maybe the 'explanation' is that they're Beowulfs and She-Beowulfs aka epic heroes.

3 - tendency for heroines to get significant scars they keep, and not 'cosmetic' scars, but hardcore scarring that makes them 'ugly' by their own worlds' standards.

4 - extremely simple, fast paced writing style that even non-fantasy readers can easily get into, and which I'm told is YA-ish.

Ie. the things that make me different are the same things that scare away traditional publishers...

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

For me I think the things that readers will notice are that I try to make my characters likeable and avoid the bad endings. I'm a fan of Dean R Koontz and I think it comes through.

I also try to weave more complex plots and to make the stories less easily predicted. I think this comes through more in my sci fi and urban fantasy than in the traditional fantasy.

And just lately I've been trying to write some very different stories, ones that readers will not have read before. Genesis I think is unusual if not unique in it's concept, and my WIP The Man Who Wasn't Anders Voss, I can honestly say is very different to any book I've ever read before in terms of pot and plot resolution. Trekkies will understand the conception of the idea, but after that even they won't guess where it's going.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Devora]

For me, i think it's that i put most of my focus on building and developing my characters and trying to make them either likeable. or sympathetic. If the reader can't invest in the characters in some way, what is to say they'll want to invest in the plot, or any other elements in the story.