Assigned Blog Post #2

PROMPT: After reading multiple stories from the same writer, do you start to recognize certain styles or patterns they have in their writing? Are there certain aspects of their subjects that they consistently pay special attention to? Do they have a specific or notable sentence structure? Do they tend to go to the same family of similes or metaphors every time? What common threads do you see? What makes the stories “belong” to the writer?

Now think about your own writing. Do you have a specific style? Is there a certain way you write that is different from anyone else? What is your “signature”? Do you have one?

I think certain styles or patterns are certainly recognizable for particular writers. This is not only for writing style and word choice, but also subject matter and consequently broader trends in tone and mood. Diaz, for example, has stories that speak with a very casual, literal, slang style. His similes and metaphors are often creative, meant to be humorous, and very exaggerated. In addition, Diaz writes stories that is in the context of his particular cultural upbringing. His stories are generally about his family or the people he himself probably new as a child. His heritage and the sort of language he must have used as a child with his family is clear in the overall language of all of his stories. The stories all usually give a bright, lively feeling, and the way in which the stories are told causes the reader to imagine the story as if it were being told in the moment. All of these aspects, then, in combination, create Diaz's unique voice.

As to my own stories, I'm not quite sure what sort of style I have. I think that more experienced writers are able to have they're own "signature" styles and voices in writing because they've written enough to know what type of writing they are most comfortable with. I'm not sure if I've found that yet. It's difficult for me to write, and sometimes I end up reading and rereading my works over and over again because I don't feel like it's quite right. Just now, too, I debated using "because," "'cause" and "cuz" in my last sentence!! Should I write formally? Just as I speak? A little bit of both!?!?!? I dunno. I supposed I do inevitably put in elements of my speech in here. But then there're<--(conjugations always make my stylistically conflicted) soooo many different things that i can do when I tell a story to evoke a certain attitude or mood, I just confuse myself.

One particular stylistic thing that trips me up is the usage of capitals. This drives me nuts. When I talk about death or truth, I often like to personify them. I write Death and Truth, not death and truth. But then I turn it in and get it evaluated, and my paper comes back with red x's over the caps, which gets on my nerves a lot. It really tells me that the person who just edited my paper doesn't think I know how to use capital letters....but I do!!! It was just a style attempt....

So....I don't think I quite have a signature style yet. Or maybe I do, but I don't know it yet. Maybe signatures aren't something to create. Maybe they're just developed naturally, unconsciously, inevitably. How else would they seem so real and fluid?

Now that I've read over what I've just written, I realized something. I like leaving out the "and" when I have lists in my writing. AH-HAH!! So it's a natural unconscious thing. :)

But I guess people can choose to "grow into" styles that they'd like to have....like an over time sort of thing... By shaping and pruning their style, I guess they can make it fit their purposes for writing. But beneath all the changes they make in their style intentionally, I think, they're natural voice will still show hints here and there.

Did this make sense? I hope so. I think I have a confusing style of writing.