Sometimes I feel like everybody expects all writers to write the same thing every single day.

When in actuality we as writers try to think outside of the box to come up with ideas to write something every single day. Since January, I’ve been hosting a writing challenge where several people have taken time every single day of the year so far to write something. It’s either been free writing or parts of a story or whatever but the matter of the fact is they have taken time to write something different every day. That is a prime example of “out of the box writing” Let me explain my definition of “cookie cutter writing” Cookie cutter writing is a style of writing that looks the exact same every single time. No matter how many different things you change, the style is exactly the same.

It’s like a pizza, no matter how many different slices you have it’s all the same pizza regardless.

I believe writing like this should be explained by the use of a bowl of chili, you can add spices to it and punch it up to be something incredibly tasty but only if you’re willing to open the spice cabinet and experiment with what is available to you.

Here are three main ways I have come up with to spot a “cookie cutter writer”;

1. No matter the topic being written, the style remains the same, almost like a volcano that hasn’t erupted in 25,000 years but chooses the day of your daughter’s wedding to erupt on the ceremony grounds.

2. They use the exact same words every time just in different orders and contexts. It’s like writing a story about a blue puppy being followed by a guy wearing a green striped shirt who writes down everything you leave your pawprint on to figure out what you want. (First person to guess this reference gets a special gift)

3. No matter how many hints you drop, they will NEVER get them.

These type of people may be stuck in their ways and I believe they can be re-shaped to be something amazing if you take the time to work with them.

Everybody has a different writing style. So my question to you is; What’s yours?

Thank you for reading and I hope to hear from you very soon.