Are you a Visceralist?

Influence has an important role in your writing. As you understand and work with different styles and influences, you’ll learn how to find your own voice.

This is part eight of a 10-part series on style and voice. Writers in the Story Course and the Story Intensive can determine their writing style by taking the Style Diagnosis Quiz. This is a tool to help you highlight elements of style in your own work and point you to authors who may inspire you right now.

Read the rest of the Style Diagnosis series here: — Bookish — Deeper Than You Think — Fearless — Grounded Fantasist — Stylist — Quirky but Serious — Intimate Orator — Pointy With Intellect — Minimalist — Visceralist (below)

Are you a Visceralist?

When you write, you have to feel it in your body before it feels true.

You leave no sentence or word unturned — everything must run through your five senses before you leave it on the page.

You even use your sixth sense, sometimes. You are devoted to literary comparison, and a good metaphor can bring you to your knees.

You have a strong physical relationship to your work -- you feel it all. So if your character feels cold, you feel a chill when you write. If your character feels jealous, your chest might feel on fire when you write.

You are brave enough to continually attempt to describe the indescribable with language, and your work is incredibly embodied.

Read the following books to learn about other Visceralist writers:

• Lisa Moore, Open

• Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

• Alexander MacLeod, Light Lifting

• Bill Gaston, Gargoyles

• Casey Plett, Little Fish

• Richard Van Camp, Night Moves

• Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

• Shani Mootoo, Cereus Blooms at Night

• Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God

Please leave your suggestions for other Visceralist writers in the comments below.

xo,

Photo credit (top): Roopak Ravi on Unsplash

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