Figuring out what kind of writer you are

eruthford said:

Are you more commercial or literary in your style? More thoughtful or action-oriented? Better at light humor, dark humor or absurd humor?

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These are by no means exclusive categories. Some of the finest writers in literary history (including the giants Shakespeare and Cervantes) have wandered through all of them.

Me? I don't overworry about such things, and just try to write the best story I'm capable of.

caw

I try to write the same way, without overthinking it too much. But we as writers tend to naturally overthink things.

For me, I write what I'm most interested in, YA mytseries/thrillers, usually dark and edgy. And since I have the bipolar disorder, most of my characters have a mental issue, whether it's depression or schizophrenia or something like that.

To be honest I've never really given it any thought. I just write the stories I have to tell.

It is worth mentioning that I'm strictly genre. I write what I like to read. My work does often has overlapping elements, though.

I'm in the "not too worried about how I define myself" category. There are authors I greatly admire (from two opposite ends of the fantasy spectrum, Terry Pratchett and Tad Williams) who I sometimes wish I could write more like, or could distill aspects of their awesomeness into myself, but I'm more concerned with finding my own voice than writing to fit into a category or genre.

Another one for - I don't really think about it, I'm a genre reader and I write more or less what I read.

What an interesting question on figuring out the kind of writer you are. I like the responses thus far too - essentially everyone is saying they don't worry too much about what kind of writer they are, and instead just write whatever stories are in their hearts. However, as we all know, writing is not without its perils of falling into various traps and tropes (hey, that sounds like a Jeopardy category - I'll take traps and tropes for $200 please Alex?). Since joining these forums a mere four months ago, I've see threads where people discuss writers block, some have said they've been running out of ideas, others are observing that they are too distracted, and the list goes on and on from there.

The title of the thread gave me three thoughts I'd like to express here:

1. First, it reminded me of a career counseling book I read several years ago now called What Color Is Your Parachute? and it really helped me identify my key strengths and skills for focusing my career path, and made sure I was pursuing positions both in the right sector, and with the right kinds of companies. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some sort of evaluative utility that could help aspiring writers identify their writing style - or what kind of writer they are?

2. Second, I was reminded of a website that X-Rite set up a number of years ago, where people could go and test their monitors for color accuracy. They adapted it into a fairly popular "quiz" or online test of your own visual color test to see if you could identify various hues or shades of colors. (For those interested in playing with the quiz, it can be found here.)

3. Third, this topic reminded me of a thread I saw the other day about the Myers-Briggs personality test and some of the discussion that AW'ers had there was interesting fodder during my morning coffee. (If I can find the thread, will come back and link it here too...)

All these thoughts now merge together about this whole question of identifying what kind of writer you are - see where my mind is going? I am willing to bet that there might be a fun way to help writers out of the funk that the OP is describing here. It would clearly not be a scientific way, but imagine an online quiz or test of sorts that would help you identify the kind of writer you are. I could see questions on the quiz being something like:

Question 1 - How many books have you read in the past 12 months?
A. 0-6
B. 6-12
C. 12-24
D. 24+

Question 2 - How long have you been interested in writing?
A. 0-2 years
B. 2-5 years
C. 5-7 years
D. 10+ years

Question 3 - How many stories (books, novels, short stories, flash fiction, etc. - pretty much anything that has a beginning, middle, and an end) have you started?
A. 0
B. 1-3
C. 4-10
D. 10-15
E. 16+

Question 4 - How many stories (books, novels, short stories, flash fiction, etc. - pretty much anything that has a beginning, middle, and an end) have you completed?
A. 0
B. 1-3
C. 4-10
D. 10-15
E. 16+

Question 5 - When you are looking for a book to read, what genre(s) attract you the most - (select up to 3)?
A. Mystery
B. Science Fiction/Fantasy
C. Romance
D. Literature
E. Erotica
F. Western
G. Religious
H. Historical
I. Horror

Etc., etc., etc.

So, turning these ideas back on topic to the thread here - does anyone know of a poll in AW, or a website that may assist aspiring writers in helping them figure out what kind of writer they are?

As usual, blacbird is talking sense. I've found that when I catch myself thinking about things like genre before I've got a first draft, it usually means I'm in trouble.

I feel like question 3 should be how many stories have you completed. It makes a huge difference, imo.

Sure - these questions I just kind of wrote off the top of my head, so I updated it to include a variance for writing you've completed versus writing you've started.

As an FYI, there are some pseudo-tests online already after I googled a bit:

https://iwl.me/
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/08/american-writers-thesaurus-quiz/
http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu...personality_types/personality_and_writing.htm

The last one is based off the Myers-Briggs test, so take it with a grain of salt, but some of the writing correlations are interesting regardless. My results were Ann Rice and Ernest Hemmingway respectively on the first two, and on the MBPT I was an ENTJ, so again, not sure how helpful it really is! LOL

For the second one I got Hemingway. But those tests don't tell you what sort of writer you are. And in some ways, defining your style might well end up as creative straitjacket.

(As an aside, those qs proposed above -- surely the answers to numbers 2 and 3 would be influenced by the age of the person answering.)

Of course age would be a factor to account for. I'd imagine there are tons of influences, ranging from:

age
gender identity
sexual preference
where you grew up
where you live now
philosophical/political tendencies & inclinations
favorite and most hated authors

The list goes on and on - now you got my mind going on this! LOL

Creating an online quiz that would pose these questions would be easy enough, it'd be more a matter of developing an algorithm that would give adequate consideration to all the questions to come up with a favored or preferred writing style. I could do the former, but definitely not the latter! LOL

CBJason said:

Of course age would be a factor to account for. I'd imagine there are tons of influences, ranging from:

age
gender identity
sexual preference
where you grew up
where you live now
philosophical/political tendencies & inclinations
favorite and most hated authors

The list goes on and on - now you got my mind going on this! LOL

Creating an online quiz that would pose these questions would be easy enough, it'd be more a matter of developing an algorithm that would give adequate consideration to all the questions to come up with a favored or preferred writing style. I could do the former, but definitely not the latter! LOL

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None of this would be of any use unless the concept of 'kinds of writers' is pinned down.

Helix said:

None of this would be of any use unless the concept of 'kinds of writers' is pinned down.

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Now wait a gol-darn minute here, you want results!?!?!?!

Ok, here ya go: Pantsers and Outliners

Just kidding, sort of, that's obviously not gonna help the OP. I'd imagine that "kinds of writers" could be distilled down into 4 or 5 main types, but I honestly have no idea how to categorize writing styles. Suggestions or discussion there would actually be interesting for me in my own personal development...

I'm the procrastinating kind of writer. And I suspect folks who waste time wondering what kind of writer they are also belong in that category.

CBJason said:

Sure - these questions I just kind of wrote off the top of my head, so I updated it to include a variance for writing you've completed versus writing you've started.

As an FYI, there are somepseudo-tests online already after I googled a bit:

https://iwl.me/
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/08/american-writers-thesaurus-quiz/
http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu...personality_types/personality_and_writing.htm

The last one is based off the Myers-Briggs test, so take it with a grain of salt, but some of the writing correlations are interesting regardless. My results were Ann Rice and Ernest Hemmingway respectively on the first two, and on the MBPT I was an ENTJ, so again, not sure how helpful it really is! LOL

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The first one says I write like Agatha Christie. Hemingway on the second and INFJ on the 3rd. Quite interesting really. Once I clicked on the "Your Personality Type and Writing" and then clicked on "INFJ" it is pretty accurate for me in most areas. Thanks for sharing this!

LeAnn

Heh, not sure that "procrastinating" is a style of writing, but I hear ya!

Google/Quora came to my rescue for writing styles generically speaking (https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-simple-breakdown-of-the-four-different-writing-styles):

[FONT=q_serif]1. Expository writing style is a subject-oriented style, it is writing that 'expose'. The focus is telling the readers about a specific subject and in the end the author leaves out his own opinion about that topic. This type of writing include essays, newspaper and magazine articles, instruction manuals, textbooks, encyclopedia articles.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]The expository essay is often used in the academic writings. Usually expository essays have a thesis or objective in an introductory, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion part. The main point is to provide the reader with as much information as you can to make feel as if he or she has learned something after reading.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]2. Descriptive style[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]Here is the most important purpose is describing an event, a character or a place in detail. Descriptive writing style is when an author specifies an event, an object or a thing than just giving information about it. This style provides readers with descriptions of people, objects, and events. The author uses descriptive writing to create sensory details to enhance the reading experience, so the reader is able to make a connection through the use of sensory details (tasting, seeing, hearing, smelling, touching). These techniques will assist you in becoming not only a better writer, but will also make your writing more engaging for readers. Describing is a way of illustrating or explaining something with words. Descriptive essays help you show something that your reader can see, feel, or hear whatever it is you're talking about.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]3. Persuasive style[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]Persuasive writing style is a category of writing when writers try to give reasons to make the readers believe him. The persuasive style aims to convince the readers. Persuasive writing helps students write arguments for their opinions, and provides an opportunity to research facts related to their opinions. As students develop an understanding of how writing can change people’s thoughts, they can begin to understand the persuasive meaning of the marketing.[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]4. Narrative style[/FONT]
[FONT=q_serif]Narrative writing style is the writing a writer narrates a story to. It consists of short stories, novels, poetry, anecdotes, oral histories and biographies. Narrative style provides greater meaning for the reader and helps the reader use imagination to visualize different situations. It's important to understand that literary elements in narratives include such things as the plot, setting, style, theme, characters, and perspective. Narrative writing style's main goal is telling a story. The author creates many characters and tell you what happens to them. Sometimes an author writes from the point of view of one of the characters.[/FONT]

Would people agree with these generic categories?

EMaree said:

I'm the procrastinating kind of writer. And I suspect folks who waste time wondering what kind of writer they are also belong in that category.

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EMaree I often procrastinate as well. It's a terrible thing sometimes especially when I have some good ideas and am at work and can't get to a pen and paper to write them down. Then in the midst of all the ruckus at work, I forget what my idea was. Same goes with when I wake up and had an awesome dream, I can't for the life of me remember the most important part. I'll spend days stewing about it. lol

Then I have those days where a friend calls me up and asks what I'm doing and I tell them I'm writing today. They hang up and I roll over and go back to sleep.

LeAnn

My style is naturally very cinematic. I write narration and dialogue like you'd see in a movie.

This tends to miss out on a lot of the internal thoughts, emotions and attitudes, and the senses other than sight or hearing. I have to go back in later and add those or else my writing stays 2-dimensional.

I never thought it much, I write what interests me, which is usually fantasy/SF/horror. I wrote a pair of novellas that were published by an LGBT-centric press, so now on my social media I have loads of LGBT-centric writers, and I feel a bit like an imposter because they are M/M authors and I don't consider myself one, as some of my work just happened to have gay guys in it but not all of it does.

CBJason said:

Sure - these questions I just kind of wrote off the top of my head, so I updated it to include a variance for writing you've completed versus writing you've started.

As an FYI, there are somepseudo-tests online already after I googled a bit:

https://iwl.me/
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/08/american-writers-thesaurus-quiz/
http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu...personality_types/personality_and_writing.htm

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Thank you for the first link!!!! I copied my opening paragraph for my new novel and it said I write like Stephen King!!! Hello...but I LOVE SK, he is one of my favorite authors. Now I know it's not saying I have his talent, he is the master of his genre and I am in no way comparing myself to the Great King, nobody can write like SK least of all me.....but this made me smile to see that.

I like to juxtapose things, perhaps having a dark chapter followed by an amusing one.

I would call my writing theatrical, in the sense I have recognizable scenes that are often little stories in their right. And then it's wheeled off and another scene starts.

I am definitely into light, witty humor, and novels with sweet endings. I stay away from edgy, darker stuff, though I would argue all novels have some dark bits. The key is how you present it.

My writing is not descriptive, and more fast-paced. My eyes would glaze over if I read something overly descriptive for the sake of description.

I am a flippant sarcastic sort of writer I suppose, despite my best efforts, I can't help but take the piss when I write my characters. I seem to enjoy stripping away pretence and dignity from the main players, and having them fall on their arse, only to redeem them with nonetheless noble qualities.

I am not writing the book that I want to write, its just coming out this way.

laserkey said:

I am definitely into light, witty humor, and novels with sweet endings. I stay away from edgy, darker stuff, though I would argue all novels have some dark bits. The key is how you present it.

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I like the idea of light novels, and I've started out trying to write them, but I always end up in edgy, dark territory. Not dark humor (as in the initial question), just dark.