: Re: How do I stop my writing sounding like a bad imitation of whatever author I've just been reading? I like to read across a variety of authors, genres, and publication dates. Whenever I sit

@BetL639

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I think I might suggest an exercise to help with this, if you want to work on developing your own unique style. You could try this for a sentence, a paragraph, or a couple of paragraphs or pages. It would probably be best to try a paragraph at a time to start with.

Start by writing a sentence (or taking one that you've already written) look at it, and decide what the essence of the sentence is. The key here is that you'll be working with the idea that you want to communicate in each sentence, paragraph, etc.

So, you have your first sentence in front of you. Now go back and write it again, but try writing the same thing in a different way. You might do this by using a different choice or words, varying how long and short your sentences are, or by changing the structure. Here's an example.

With a glance over his shoulder, James stepped across the room.

Not bad, but not necessarily very interesting. How can we shake things up a bit to catch the reader's eye? The first thing you might try is to change the structure of the sentence.

James stepped across the room, glancing over his shoulder.

Notice that by switching the halves of the sentence, the idea that James is moving is emphasized by putting that idea first. Also, using the word glancing as opposed to with a glance emphasizes the idea that the action is in progress. It suggests motion and that he has just done this, or is in the middle of doing it.
If you want to emphasize his glance over his shoulder or if that is more important than his moving across the room, we could leave that in the first half instead of switching things around.
Now what if 'stepped' doesn't communicated the right idea? It's not specific enough, or James, in your mind, is upset or nervous? If we use a different word, we might be able to give the reader a different picture of what's going on.

James hurried across the room, glancing over his shoulder.

Now this is a bit more interesting. The word "hurried" gives the reader an idea of nervous energy. 'Stepping' is apparently not fast enough for James, so he hurries across the room. Notice how one word can change the entire feeling of a sentence. There are always ideas that your reader will take from your writing beyond what is stated simply.

I know that this advice might sound basic, but the choice of words can be very effective in putting a particular idea in the reader's mind.

I hope this helps!

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