Friday, December 19, 2008

On the Eighth Day, Seventh Day . . .

What is one of the most ethereal qualities for a writer to grasp?

Sheesh! The candle on my desk almost blew out with the collective shout-out. Or maybe it was just me.

Voice.

It's that thing about writing that makes what I write different than what John Sandford, or Karin Slaughter, or (heaven forbid) Dean Koontz writes.

A couple of unoriginal thoughts on voice that have come across my desk in the last year or so:

Style and voice are virtually the same.

Each innovation in style must be intentional.

The goal of finding your voice is better expressed as shedding the Novice Writers Voice.

And then shed all the false voices that take the place of the Novice Writers Voice.

And then these were added from The Sisters in Crime Newsletter in an article written by John Morgan Wilson:

Voice is your fictional prose persona, and it may differ with each non-series book you write. and

Developing our voice is like raising children—we need to accept natural predilections. - Naomi Hirahara

It's like a muscle: The more you write, the stronger it gets. The less you write, the weaker it gets. - John Morgan Wilson

So, with the gift of voice, we're back to . . . what else? Writing.

And that brings me to the next gift . . . a quiet place to write.

It might be at a kitchen table (where Mary Higgins Clark got her start) with some earplugs from at Wal-Mart. Or parked on the side of a street in a quiet neighborhood. Or maybe a cozy chair in front of a roaring fire.

A moment with no distractions, no errands or chores to do. Just the words and a vehicle to transport them.



Just finished reading A Whole New Life by Betsy Thornton.


It's all better with friends.

No comments:

Post a Comment