Discovering My Style

I recently enrolled at Southern New Hampshire University (online) to pursue a Master’s in English and Creative Writing. In my first course, Studying the Craft, I’ve already learned so much, and for someone like me, it has been a lot of fun!

For a recent assignment, I was given the task of selecting any five words from a contemporary text, and then using them in a short work that showcases my style. Before now, I never knew I had a style! But when I sat down to write this piece, I realized that I do. Even though I borrowed individual words from another writer, these words are all me.

We ascend the trail in silence. I find comfort in the cadence of our footsteps. His jaunt a lilting quick-step, slightly ahead. And I struggle to keep pace.

I didn’t sleep well. Awoken with a sudden flash of all things unspoken, all tasks undone. My backwards count, cascading into a restful state only to be jolted alert again. 

It seems too early now to be outside. The sun still lingers behind gray and violet mountaintops. But we continue on, leaves crinkling beneath our feet. A crow recites soliloquies from its lookout above our heads. I fixate on the caw. A harsh but friendly greeting. 

He stops, turning back, asking if we should trek on. 

“Go,” I reply, like a crow.

He picks up the pace, and I lumber along, my thoughts returning to today’s to-dos. 

As we reach the pinnacle, the sun, ringed with wisps of yellow clouds, raises its crown above the majestic peaks. I am awakened, uplifted. I breathe in the morning.

He peers at me, watching as I take in the view, and I wonder what he’s thinking. But I begin our descent without a word. He follows after me, traipsing at my heels.

We step inside. His energy has drained into me. I am ready to work, charged, my laptop open. He is asleep in seconds, head on my hip, the scent of earth emanating from his fur.

I love to write about peaceful settings, and I do my best thinking when I’m out on the trail with my dog, so there’s nothing that could highlight who I am as a writer more than this. The simple sentence structures in this piece are typical of my writing style. I also tend to use “cascading” sentences with commas linking together subsequent phrases. And I commonly use sentence fragments to emphasize ideas. I write with imagery (sometimes overdoing it) to create a feeling or scene, but I also like to leave things for the reader to infer.

This piece is so me that my youngest daughter thought it was a repeat of something I’d written before. No. This is all new — in the style of me.