The Style Is The Man Himself

"John Cheever wrote many short stories in what was referred to as the ‘New Yorker style’. Why might a writer have a style? What is your writing style and why?"

Cheever's style was also called 'uniquely American' by writing critics, an abstract idea which seems to single him out as a particularly prolific writer of short stories.The adverb 'uniquely' in particular, to me, sums up why writers strive to establish a certain style in their writing; the very essence of the word implies that there is nothing comparable to it which exists - it is completely recognisable as being itself. For a writer to be identifiable simply by the style in which they write, rather than for their plot or characters, means that they have achieved a consistency in their writing which marks them out from every other writer. 

We know the works of Emily Bronte, J.K. Rowling, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkein, John Green and many other authors just by the tone and the style of their writing, and because of this they become staples of household bookshelves - their style marks them out as being known and respected for the pieces they create.

Being an aspiring writer, I, too, am constantly in search of the style which could be - uniquely - my own. The more I read, the more my style changes, becoming an amalgamation of the styles of those authors whose work I most enjoy. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that a writer's style is never particularly set in stone. Rather, the more we read, the more we write, the more out style develops and evolves until it becomes something different from everything else that is out there.

Of course, recognition by style doesn't stop at writing, so here's some musical style that I will always instantly recognise.