Twist on the "how you know it's me" meme

[amanuensis1]

I like the "top ten things that tell a reader it's one of my fics" meme, but I'm not so clueful as to recognize these elements in my own stories. You guys are boggling me with how insightful you are towards your own writing style. I mean, sure, I write certain characters a lot, and there are themes like smut and non-con, but I don't think about writing style when I write--I think about the specific story and where it's going and that's pretty much it. I just...write, the way that I do because that's what I do and how it comes out.

So, fine. A number of you have said you were able to peg my stories in the anonymous fic exchanges right away. Help me out here: tell me how. Yes, that's right, I'm asking you to do the meme for me. This is not a roundabout way of asking for compliments; I'd really like to know what I do that not everyone does in order to understand style better. And if it's just, "Well, you write those characters and you write non-con," let me know! That way I can know it's that simple and there's no other magic to it. (Well-meaning negative feedback is certainly welcome as well.)

Comments

[maelwaedd.livejournal.com]

You take every squick and make it totally and utterly hot. If somebody else writes them, I don't bother reading because I know I'm going to end up curled up into a ball on the floor, but if you write them I'll just click straight away. :)

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Sign #1 it's one of A's fics: Darkness and torture and stuff, yet the Fluff-Meister (aka Beth) finds herself reading to the end and then reccing!

(in other words, it's all magic!)

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Honestly...I'm afraid that it's just that you're such a damned good writer. :)

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

The dialogue is definitely something I always notice about your stories - there's lots of it, and it's always spot-on and clever. (I think I notice this the most aside from the characters or tone you favour because I have trouble with dialogue and fangirl you madly for your deft hand with it.)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, shoot. This is gonna look like I really was fishing for compliments, isn't it? XD

Well, darnit, thank you. That's incredibly sweet of you and I must be gracious even if I'm blushing and saying, "Eeek, but, I didn't mean...!" Seriously, that's lovely, thank you.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Your interpretation of Lucius is what did it for me during smutmas_elves. He's very... smooth. And in control. Which doesn't help, I know, since a lot of fen write him that way. And the unbroken!Harry.

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

Easy ways to tell if Amy wrote it?

1. Exquisite use of language, with exceptional attention to detail,
2. Somebody is squirming,
3. By at least part of the way through, the reader is squirming,
4. By the end of it the reader wonders if they're going to go to hell, and if it will be as much fun as what they've just read.

♥

[son-of-darkness.livejournal.com]

You take a plot and turn it into an epic (even if it is only a one-shot) whereas most people with the same plot, would only be able to cough up about 5 pages. I love that.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Aie, nooo, I wasn't looking to swell my head, I swear! I'm...it's like when I was a kid in English class and I would have the right answer to the grammar questions but never knew why. "Yes, and why do we use that verb tense there?" "Because you do. Duh." I don't sit around thinking subject/predicate/past pluperfect; similarly, I don't do that with my writing. I just say, "Well, this feels right." Really, I wasn't trying to fish. ^_^ But I must say thank you anyway, because you are too nifty and dear for me not to be properly appreciative. *hugs*

[maelwaedd.livejournal.com]

Absolutely no problem, my dear. Plus, you needn't fish for compliments-- they mostly just appear when fan girls like me are in your journal. :)

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

No, see...I didn't think you were fishing. Unfortunately, you don't really have a lot of writerly "tics" - or at least not ones that are obvious to me - so my knowledge of when a story is yours is sort of like your knowledge of the right answer to the grammar questions.

There may very well be some sort of analytical thought processes going on beneath the surface that helps me (and others) peg you as the author, but it's hard to tell just where those processes stem from, apart from the often-seen non-con.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Well, I can tell you what I did to imitate your style in An Eye For An Eye: tight Harry POV, noncon with the victim being forced to accept as well as give sexual pleasure, and lots of explicit sex.

[satanbaker.livejournal.com]

Characters either have something they're awkward about, or they're so totally in control that they push themselves into awkwardness.

Which I appreciate, because it's realistic, and.. things. And you have a certain wordyness, that isn't really, really wordy, but it's like.. wordy-lite. You get the feeling without the substance.

... diet-wordy?

God, I need to sleep.

[twistedrecesses.livejournal.com]

1. There's some aspect of the story, somewhere, that's got major squick-factor

2. Characterization is amazingly consistent and believable

3. The sex is Hawt

:)

[cellia.livejournal.com]

This isn't true for your very darkest stories, but: a sense of humor and an appreciation of the absurd. And usually an honesty about the morality of what is going on. This "honesty" ties into the way you get into the reality of a fantasy, like, say, non-con, and observe all these little truths... which somehow usually ends up in making the realistic-fantasy hotter rather than ruining it.

[viverra-libro.livejournal.com]

I am doing this without looking at anyone else's comments, for what that's worth. First, while the sex you write is amazing, and usually involves some common elements (prolonged restraint, thorough spanking, and earth-shattering sex), it's more your characterization that's so very *you*. You seem to have a pretty consistent vision of who the characters are no matter what they're doing; that was how I identified your smutmas fic, and I would have been able to do so even without the line of needles! Here's what I see:

-- Harry is beautifully ruthless, 'though this is more noticeable if he's not enslaved. He's also fundamentally, in his soul-of-souls, a hero.

-- Someone ends up with small painful objects running linearly down their body.

-- Lucius is a sex god, 'though he's far more ruled by his intellect (pragmatism, power games, and survival concerns) than his dick. And he usually suffers. (And hey, stop that, will you? ;) I don't think Lucius has had any consequence-free fun since "Their Worse Than Killing Lust")

-- Snape is, well, malicious, no matter whose side he's on. And he's nearly always a top. He's also extremely competent, very sharp-tongued, and On The Winning Side, whichever side that is.

-- Snape hates Sirius. Even if they're having sex. Especially if they're having sex.

-- Sirius is a slut.

-- Draco will snarl and spit, but he subs beautifully.

Does any of that seem to be true for you?

[greenmouse.livejournal.com]

I think your Lucius. I've honestly never seen anyone write him the way you do, and it's what made me completely fall for you as a writer. So, yeah. Umn. You rock!

Also: If ponderosa illustrates it.

[sirjimmy.livejournal.com]

You always make the reader want a sequel. Your one shots leave off at unexpected places and you make people shout, "HEY! WTF? Where the rest? WRITE MORE NOW!"

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Titles, usually. If it's a fic that makes me squirm and has a title that Pervy!Shakespeare would be proud of, I figure it's you.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Characters either have something they're awkward about, or they're so totally in control that they push themselves into awkwardness.

Excellent observation.

I've sensed that in a number of your stories, but hadn't found a way to express it.

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's a difficult question. I can't say anything about style (word choices and such), and I can't say anything about *all* of your fics either 'cos they can be very different. I recongize you fic on sheer gut feeling which probably can be analyzed.

Well, if there's something humorous in the story, your humour is most easily recognizable 'cos it's darkish, rather twisted and peculiar. I dunno, when I read, cringe but laugh. Or, like, "oh my, ah-ha-ha, she didn't, *snort*"

You created a Lucius that has become a cliche already but that never is just cliche in your fic, that how good he is :); the one very controlled, smooth, aristocratic, with a lot of torture instruments at his disposal that he loves to and can use.

There's something in your writing that makes me read and love (to an alarming degree!) the things that I don't like at all in other fics. You can make one love non-con and BDSM.

You are a magician, really. I know you didn't ask for compliments, but I'm bad at analyzing things. I only know that when I read a fic of yours (or one that will turn out to be yours), I often squeal "Magic! This is magic!"

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Your character point of view is tight and unique to that character, even when the story unfolds in multiple points of view.

The tight pov is the most seductive element for me. As a reader, I'll know things other characters never know, which makes me a conspirator in the story -- or in surviving it.

The male characters seem ... well, male. In a wide variety of types, too.

Harry is a hero, in that he is the exceptional person who accomplishes what no one else can, or inspires others to do that, too. He has a genius for survival, that isn't luck but is the ability to learn and use what's at hand. That doesn't always mean he's admirable or nice, but he is the only one who can do a difficult task.

You're not afraid to break characters, to truly make them suffer or want to give up, because that reveals who they really are.

I recognize genre archetypes (from Shakespeare's History plays to Georgette Heyerish "the alpha male and the runaway") which you invert to explore new questions about the Potterverse characters. I still recognize the characters, because you've found how they might function in that template.

Your stories have satisfying endings, the right ending to the story question, which is often a happy ending for unexpected characters.

Even if you label a story as Porn Without Plot, I find a story goal drives events to a resolution. (And not just a climax {insertlaughhere}.)

It's immaterial if I like your characters, as I wind up understanding them.

[djin7.livejournal.com]

No. 10: You know it's Amanuensis when you finish reading, and realize, belatedly, that your heart has been ripped out, still beating, and it's currently on your keyboard, making a review nearly impossible.

[greenmouse.livejournal.com]

Scratch that. ponderosa121 -- I've no clue who ponderosa is but it doesn't appear to be the artist.

[monzz.livejournal.com]

Seconded. *grin*