Assigned Blog Post #2

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 have realized that each author has a distinct style to their writing, whether it’s the way they develop their characters, the plot of their stories, or even the way they title their stories.

Junot Diaz, for example, chooses to stick with the same characters (Rafa and the narrator remain the same in both stories we’ve read), and he is very consistent in the traits of his characters. Rafa’s taste in women is distinct in both Nilda and Fiesta, 1980—he likes bosomy women, and seemingly lives for physical pleasure. The narrator consistently provides a stark contrast to his brother, because he isn’t a hedonist and he is rather shy around girls.

Diaz also deals with dialogue in an extremely unique way: he doesn’t use quotation marks, but just introduces the beginning of a dialogue with “he/she said” and when the speaker in the dialogue changes, the sentence he/she says is placed at the beginning of a new line.

But what really distinguishes Diaz’s stories from other authors is the culture weaved into the story. The Spanish words used in the stories, the diction used by the narrator, and the descriptions all serve to give the reader an idea of the narrator’s background. For example, the narrator often says “dope”, “kicked our asses”, “Papi”, “Mamo” “tia”, “tio”, “didn’t want to go to no party”, “getting your ass whupped”, “piss him off”, “getting laid” and plenty of not-so-clean language. This diction/slang reveals Yunior’s age (he’s a teenage boy no doubt), and that he probably grew up in a pretty “hood” place.

Moreover, Diaz’s stories often are pretty commonplace—they aren’t shrouded in mystery like Butler’s stories often are. They are simply a snapshot of a time of the narrator’s life—nothing especially out of the ordinary.

And something minor that I also noticed is that Diaz titles his stories with rather short titles—usually a one word noun as opposed to the long, descriptive titles of Robert Olen Butler.

Now let’s explore Robert Olen Butler’s style. Like previously mentioned, he gives his stories an elaborate, suspenseful title—making the reader want to find out what the story is about.

Also, Butler pays particular attention to infusing his stories with imagery that relates specifically to a recurring theme or motif in his story. For example, in Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot, Butler uses descriptions relating to birds and being caged in, like “faint hook to [her nose]”, “her touch makes my tail flare”, “eyes pinned and dilated and pinned again” “somebody is trapped in each of them”. In A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Robert Olen Butler uses olfactory imagery—“sweet smell about him” “she smelled of lavender and fresh bedclothes” “smelling of lavender and our own sweat” “Saigon smelled of tar and motorcycle exhaust and cordite”.

Like mentioned before, Butler’s stories often involve a semi-reality: in his stories, there is an element of the supernatural, although it is described in a very believable, almost commonplace and usual, way. In Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot, the husband apparently reincarnated into a parrot, and is bought at the pet store by his ex-wife. As a reader, I question the truth of that, but swept away by the descriptions, details, and the matter-of-factness of the story makes me accept it as reality. Likewise, in A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Dao sees Ho Chi Min at his bedside—even though Ho is already dead, and Dao knows that. It seems rather inane to ask the reader to believe that Ho comes back to life again to visit Dao, but with Butler’s persuasive descriptions, it seems as if it really did happen.

I don’t believe I actually have a distinct style—my writing isn’t developed enough for me to have one, but I’m certainly working on it. Before, when I was in elementary/junior high and I wrote stories as a hobby, my style generally involved an intricate, mysterious plot, in which everything resolves itself at the end. Also, I LOVED dialogue, because I felt it made the writing seem natural. Since I’ve taken quite a hiatus in my writing career, I’m trying to develop a style for myself again. I think it’s important for authors to have a distinct style, because that’s what creates a loyal reader base for that author—boosting personal career satisfaction as well as sales! Just like singers should create their own style rather than emulate others, this is an important step for a writer.