Voice
I'm involved with several writers groups, clubs,
organizations, and online chats. One thing I've noticed at pretty much all of
these writerly gatherings is the need to get others to agree with any given
philosophy, idea, or technique. The other side of the coin is listening to all
these philosophies, ideas, and techniques, and agreeing that they sound
correct.
The thing is, they all are and
none of them are.
Writers are,
generally speaking, an eager-to-please bunch. After all, if we didn't want to
make our readers eagerly await our stuff, why share it in the first place? It's
a nice little ego boost to have someone love your work, and it hurts like hell
when they don't. So, being writers like we are, we often ask other people their
opinions. We ask about technique, craft, theory... and the narrative
itself.
After all, a good first reader
and idea-bouncer is priceless,
right?
Of course, but try to remember
that a bad one is legion and can derail your work, knocking it so far off course
you might never recover. Even with the best intentions, most opinions are
crippling. Sure they might sound great, sure you might even agree,
but...
Write YOUR voice, write what you
think, feel, and are passionate about, especially if you're fairly new to this
gig. It doesn't matter how anyone else does it - it's all a personalized
variation of butt in chair on a regular basis anyway. Many, many people think
they have all the answers, know the tricks, the tropes, the inside scoop...
maybe they do. I've sold 3 books to a major publisher and I'm almost as clueless
as I was six years ago when I was typing along ignorantly in my living
room.
Really.
Oh,
sure, I know how to read an editorial letter, how to check a copy edit, how to
drop stuff off at FedEx, but the story, the work, the craft is still completely
self taught. And that's how it should be. All the 'how to write' books in the
world won't show you the way through a story, you have to find it on your own.
All they'll show is their author's way through, or, more likely, what they've
been taught is the way through.
All
that matters is that it's a good story, well told. No one can tell you how to do
that but you.
Trust your voice, trust
your characters, and trust your story. No one can write it but
YOU.
It's your story, not your
friends', family's, parents' or mentor's. Yours. Tell it your
way.
Then revise the crap out of it and
sell that baby.
Posted: Thursday - April 26, 2007 at 08:35 AM
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