the most notable evolution in my approach was, by far, from a verbose to a minimalist style. it wasn't overnight. it occurred over a period of probably 10 years and was first (and more) evident in my poems.
part of it was unconscious, a love of imagist poetry, a prominent hemingway phase, a near obsession with picasso and then reading translated works, like kafka or camus, whose translations take on a simple, but surreal, quality in english.
but part of it was conscious. i found, as an adult, i loathed my early work (before the age of 15 or 16) and i became interested in experimenting with language in general, if only to find out if i had something better inside me. i read a lot of beat writers, whose innovations were many, including burroughs' "cut-up" method, basically randomizing words into abstract, but ultimately coherent, expression. i juxtaposed that with the formal, elegant poetry of the romantics and i found some middle ground that seemed the target of my ambition.
i came to feel that, like an atom being smashed, language could release more energy when compressed. this fit with my desire to get away from my earlier, more elastic, work and i found it particularly effective in composing poetry. squeeze it until it pops.
so in terms of mechanical style, i seek to do the most damage with the fewest words possible, giving every word as much power as i can. i don't always succeeed, for sure, but that's the goal.
philosophically, i'm a prisoner of my own worldview. i make no apologies for that; indeed, i've come to view it as a strength.
i agree with camus when he said "a novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images".
in fiction, the result is that my characters almost always inhabit a godless world, not necessarily manovolent, but ambivalent at best.
my protagonists are almost always working class, or underclass or criminal class. they typically reject, and are hostile to, status-seeking and commercialism and all of the trappings of pop culture.
if there is a nobility in my characters, it's in the acceptance of the world-as-wilderness and a willingness to brave that cold existence to create their own destiny.
in poetry, it manifests itself in a simultaneous embrace and a rejection of emotional vulnerability.
love exists, but it is punished. happiness exists, but it's only a trick of light. and yet, even knowing this, love and happiness are still worthy of pursuit.
i'm also big into the causes and consequences of fear. it fascinates me, how people react to the oppressive forces in their lives.
i don't know. that's a partial answer, i know... but i've never known another kind.
plus it's late, and i'm stoned.