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Comments

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

That seems kind of unfortunate, honestly. Even when you write for book canons?

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

Yes. And I find fanfic that tries to imitate the writing style of the original style inherently cringy. I'm not reading (or writing) fanfic to get more of the same as the canon in terms of narration.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

SA

And I love it when I read a fic and, without regard of the fandom, I can tell that it's been written by author X because their style is distinctive rather than just some person trying to copy the style of the source material.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I quite like that too, but it's a bit too much to demand from a writer who may not be able to achieve that.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

I've been sitting on the sidelines for this one, but I feel like this is really hard for most fanfic authors to hit. I've been writing fanfiction for over fifteen years and I don't think that I would say that I have a style, other than a few minor and idiosyncratical grammatic things. When I think of authors who write in distinctive non-canon style, it's usually BNF authors. I can almost always tell an astolat fic for example. But could someone pick my work, even my original works (and I've written a fair amount by this point), out of a lineup? Probably not. And I don't think I'm a bad writer, I'm just not a GREAT writer.

For the most part, I think that all's fair in love and DNWs, but I think that this will be really hard for most lit-fandom fic writers to hit.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Imo Astolat isn't a great writer either. I find her prose tedious and I don't think she's terribly great at capturing character voices.

I'd almost definitely much rather have you than her as my assigned writer, even if I don't know you by name. Assuming we don't hate each other in namespace or something. That would be awkward.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT I think that those are fair points (and I appreciate that you'd prefer me over anyone, definitely taking that W for the day). I think that BNFs, for better or worse, tend to have a distinctive style (maybe that contributes to them being BNFs?). I wouldn't say that I have a distinctive style, although who knows, maybe someone who has read each of my works would say differently. So this feels like a request that I would struggle with.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like Astolat has a recognizable style precisely because she's so terrible at capturing character voices. She writes one specific pairing, and whatever fandom she's in, whatever characters she's writing morph into Those Two Dudes but wearing different hats.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

+ 1 It would be my nightmare to be named as recognizable for this reason. If I have a “voice” that carries across fandoms then I’m doing something wrong as an author who always tries to match character voice/canon tone.

My favorite thing is when someone accidentally stumbles across one of my fics during the anon period and then when I reply during reveals they're like OMG ITS YOU. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BECAUSE IT WAS SO IN CHARACTER/THE PLOT WAS GREAT! I’m not a BNF but I think I have a reputation for popping up in fandoms you never knew I was into and writing *the* definitive fic for those who do have an overlap in random fandoms with me, and I couldn’t ask for more.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

You're absolutely right! But I find her style difficult to spot because she's not the only person who does this.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

To me her pro work has a lot of characters with really distinct voices... weird

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

I'm mostly in live action fandoms, but there are a number of exchange regulars that aren't BNF whose style I would - and do - instantly recognize even when they branch out of their usual fandoms.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

I want you to name names so I know if I'm recognizable, coalie!

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

That might deanon me, sorry.

The thing is - this only works of you're very familiar with someone's body of work. Like, I've read maybe a handful of astolat's fics; I'm sure she has a distinctive style but I wouldn't be able to recognize it. But if I've read 20+ works by an author because I like them, I'm attuned to recognize that style. I'm know there are people who recognize my style from being guessed while my works were anon, but I'm definitely not a BNF.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Nayrt

This is where this doesn't really work as a DNW without further clarifications. If you DNW the original style, will dialogue that sounds too much like the canon character violate that (because usually the dialogue isn't naturalistic in the original canon)? Or is it only the narration that counts for the DNW?

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

Oh, I agree that it's a bad / too vague DNW without clarification!

I was just confused about the "I wouldn't know how to do this / the only way to do this would be to try an imitate another writer's style".

Personally, I wouldn't count dialogue because of course I want dialogue to be in character. Dialogue is the character's voice. Narration is, largely, the author's voice.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Narration should be heavily influenced by POV. If you write narration in exactly the same voice regardless of POV, I hope you only ever write from the POV of one character type.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

+1000

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

That really depends on how tight your third is.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

I guess here we return to the question of whether or not the writer who gets that prompt feels like they have a voice. Because if you don't, a DNW like that is super intimidating.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Or, possibly worse, you *do* have a voice, and your voice is... not extremely different from the author you're now being told not to pastiche.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

na

I don’t read or request book fandoms so I’m talking about live action media here, but my nightmare is reading a fic where it “sounds” like the author and not the character. I like a tight 3rd POV where the narrator sounds like the POV character and not an omnipotent author (unless the narrator is omnipotent in canon). When the narration is goofy and the POV character is stoic, I hate it. When the narration is scientific and the POV character is an idiot, I hate it.

For example, JS&MN show fic that is written in the the style of the books feel so tedious to me. Ones that match the tone of the show and fit the character’s rather than the author’s voice are amazing.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I don’t want pistache but I do want it to fit the voice/tone of canon. I can remove that canon tone from my narration and write generic there, but if someone gifted that to me I would assume they had no grasp on the canon or characters rather than it being a “stylistic choice” and I view authors who write in the same style despite fandom to be ATG(uys/gals) migratory lowest common denominator tbh.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

pastiche

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Surely the problem with your JS&MN example is that your author is borrowing the voice from a canon you didn't request. Although I do agree with your migratory/generic complaint. IME people who aren't trying to match canon don't do it because they have a voice distinctly their own, but because they don't have the skills to vary their writing to match different canon tones and voices.

I do find it hilarious how often you have misspelled pastiche in the last two days, though.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

But... live action media is never in tight 3rd. It can't be, because there's a camera. And JS&MN isn't even in loose 3rd most of the time.

Like, if you consider that fight Jonathan and Arabella have when he comes out of the King's Roads for the first time, that scene is not filmed from the POV of any of the characters in it. Jonathan is elated and then indignant, Arabella is worried and then irate, Grant wants to melt into the floor - but none of that is the mood of the scene itself, which is comedy. It's not in Clarke's voice exactly (I'd argue it's considerably better than her version of it), but it's much closer to being from her POV than it is to being from the tight 3rd POV of one of the characters.

If I wanted to write you something that actually matched the tone of miniseries canon I'd have to do a very loose third or third omniscient, not the fanficcy tight 3rd that you prefer. (Especially for a fic focusing on Norrell, because Norrell's interpretation of any given situation is almost always at 90° to whatever the camera/the viewer is meant to think of it.)