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

[fabularasa.livejournal.com]

Chiastic sentence structure!

Ah, nah, just kidding. I couldn't actually think of anything. I don't think I could put my finger on anything, because as far as I'm concerned, if the story's any good, I won't be able to tell who wrote it. I hate glimpsing an author hiding behind the narrator's skirts; stuff that screams "Fabula wrote this!" could also be defined as "sucky stuff." Although, as far as the sentence thing goes, I do like the way you plot sentences, and the frequent and elegant use of parallelisms.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think that's pretty true for me about favorite authors - this *not* being able to tell it's them specifically thing. It's not that my tastes aren't consistent: I recced almost all my favorite authors' stories on merry_smutmas when they were still anonymous, but I couldn't tell who'd written what.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

One of my very very very favorite stories turned out to be by one of my very very very favorite authors, and I seriously didn't know when I read and reviewed it. I found that nifty.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I hate glimpsing an author hiding behind the narrator's skirts; stuff that screams "Fabula wrote this!" could also be defined as "sucky stuff."

God, yes; you've just outlined one of my fears. Better it be "well, this just sounds like you," than "You always put the words 'tonguing his way down' in combination; damn, it's predictable and annoying."