What's Your Style: Hilfigers or Levi's?

Eva Marie Everson wrote on my manuscript at last year's BRMW (Blue Ridge Mtn Writer's ) conference, "I like your writing style." Colleen Coble said the same thing. What exactly is my style?

I've heard discussions where writers were trying to write in the style of so and so. I read the work. Their words did not sound like the famous author's words, they sounded like the writer's.

I'm not sure exactly what my "style" is. I just write to ear. If it sounds right, it sounds right. I'm not a flowery writer, though I do appreciate a pretty line. I like one word sentences and sentences set off in their own paragraph for drama.

I suppose those things comprise my style.

I love the way Stephen King writes. I study him, not to write like him, but to see how he pulls off his down to earth story-telling. I don't write like him, but I think he has influenced my style.

In the past few years, I've discovered Francine Rivers. When I read Redeeming Love, I snapped the book shut and said, "That's how I want to write!" She's amazing.

I study her novels. But, I don't write like her. Though, she influences my style.
So does Frank Peretti, Alton Gansky, and many others.

I don't conciously try to duplicate any of these writers. I think if I tried, it would come across as a cheap copy.

I wonder if style is something that can be taught. I don't know. I suspect not entirely. If I sat down to write like my friend Cindy, I might could pull off a short story in a similar folksy style. Though, it would be incredibly draining. Like paddling against the tide. And, I suspect, my own style would creep in. Those one word sentences, similes, etc.

Is "style" the same thing as "voice"? I hear about writer's trying to find their voice. I think when I was writing, Saving Eden, I was still searching for mine. But, while writing The Demon Chaser, I've became comfortable with my style, falling into it like a favorite pair of jeans. I stopped trying to squish my big butt into a new pair of Tommy Hilfigers that were too tight and tossed them aside, for my broken in Levi's.

I'm getting comfortable in my own literary skin and that feels good. I'm not Alton Gansky, or Francine Rivers, or Stephen King. I'm Gina Holmes. I may never pull off a story the way those writers have, but I will pull off my own story in my own voice, in my own jeans.