I could never write like you

CaroGirl · Mar 17, 2007

I met with one of my kind and generous beta readers today. She gave me her comments and criticisms so I can make my novel ms the best it can be. But as were sitting over coffee, she said, "One thing occurred to me as I was reading your manuscript. I could never write like that." This woman is a lovely writer. She writes in her own voice, telling her own stories. I said, "You shouldn't want to write like me."

That said, I, too, have often wished I could write like Margaret Atwood or even Amy Tan. But I can't. I gotta be me. At what point do you "find your voice" and feel satisfied enough not to wish to write like someone else? Anyone reached that point yet, and, if so, how did you get there?

Prawn · Mar 17, 2007

I am getting there. I am currently revising my first novel. I realized that it didn't get cooking until about one hundred pages in. Why? That's when I found my voice and the novel got interesting. My revision involves making my voice come from the writing from page one.
p

Sohia Rose · Mar 17, 2007

I started to get comfortable with my oftentimes quirky, sarcastic, and more often than not over-the-top writing style when publications started paying me to write. I thought, 'Wow! Writing is so subjective and someone actually trusts my gut to come up with something worth writing. And I'm getting paid for it!'

I've written from articles, narratives, personal essays, and news and feature stories; not to mention I'm working on three book-length manuscripts (two memoirs and one how-to).

But my writing styles change, I noticed. When I'm writing "news," the tone is very serious, straight-laced I call it. But when I'm writing a feature story, I try to get away with as much sarcasm as I possibly can; I like to go for the punch. When I'm writing my memoir, I'm just me. My dry humor seeps through the pages. Sometimes I even make up words or expressions, as I do in "real-life."

IrishScribbler · Mar 17, 2007

Like Prawn, I'm getting there.

The courses I took in college were a great help at finding my voice, as well as what I want to spend my career writing (style, genre, etc.).

I've been told over and over that people never stop learning, and I hope that's the case in my writing life, as well. I hope I will continue to grow and change as a writer and continue to flex and stretch my skills.

Edward G · Mar 17, 2007

Does anyone really every write in anything but their own voice? I think to myself, "Have I found my voice?" But what other voice is there?

scarletpeaches · Mar 17, 2007

If you read in one genre, or stick to one particular author, you can begin to sound derivative. That's why it's a good idea, even if you only like one particular genre, to read many different authors.

I've heard it said that surely, the more you read, the more you begin to sound like other people, but I believe that only happens when your reading material is limited - your worldview becomes focused on one or two authors and there's a danger you'll begin to sound like them and only them.

The more widely-read you are, the more universal you'll sound and strangely enough, this is when you find the confidence to develop your own writing voice.

PeeDee · Mar 17, 2007

GordonJerome said:
Does anyone really every write in anything but their own voice? I think to myself, "Have I found my voice?" But what other voice is there?

Plenty. People first starting out tend to imitate the voices around them. Nothing wrong with it, it's a perfectly natural process of developing into a stand-alone writer. If you read a lot of Steve King, you tend to write a little like him. If you read Ray Bradbury, it comes out melodic and byzantine. If you read George V. Higgins, it comes out as a string of obscenities.

Eventually, through hard work and a lot of effort, it all blends together and somewhere in there, you start to sound like you.

Birol · Mar 17, 2007

GordonJerome said:
Does anyone really every write in anything but their own voice? I think to myself, "Have I found my voice?" But what other voice is there?

Ghostwriters write in the voice of the cover authors. It's a talent and a skill like any other.

BuffStuff · Mar 17, 2007

Voice is just one of those things that's important but (imo) you can't treat it as very important or you'll stifle yourself. Write the story to the best of your ability and in the manner you're most comfortable writing in, and your natural writing style, or "voice" will develop over time. Often times our "voice" seems to develop when we've mastered the 'nuts & bolts' of fiction. "I've found my voice!" -no, you've just gotten good enough at writing to be published on a consistant basis

This being said, if I could write with any writer's particular language style, it'd be Tobias Wolff's.

PeeDee · Mar 17, 2007

The so called "peedee crusher" is right in a way. Really, it's not useful to try and point at anything and go "this is my voice," because you're not qualified to judge it. And anyway, it may change depending on what you're writing. Neil Gaiman's a good example, in that his 'voice' tends to shift depending on what he's writing....but there's always a core-Gaiman voice in there.

I didn't even think of ghost writers, Lori, that's a good point too. Professionally writing to sound like someone else. It's a useful skill.

maestrowork · Mar 17, 2007

Many people start out by imitating their favorite author or authors. I know I did. And I wanted to write like Hemingway. I wanted to write lush, lyrical, long complex sentences like Michael Chabon did. I copied John Grisham brisk style and never got it right. I thought I would try Amy Tan's "Asian style" but that didn't work for me either.

Eventually, I think I did find my own voice. It took me a while and much more confidence, though. There are times when I still get influenced by my favorite authors, and I try not to read them when I write.

PeeDee · Mar 17, 2007

maestrowork said:
Eventually, I think I did find my own voice. It took me a while and much more confidence, though. There are times when I still get influenced by my favorite authors, and I try not to read them when I write.

That's me to the letter. There are only certain authors I don't read for fear of imitating (people like Zelazny, and Douglas Adams) but everyone else doesn't seem to effect me much, thank goodness. I'd never get any reading done anymore...

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 17, 2007

I write how I talk; except I do my writing in my telephone voice when I don't know who's on the other end!

I could never be accused of writing like the person I've mostly read, which is Stephen King, as I write romance/thrillers, not horror. Still, some people you fall in love with could frighten you I suppose? hehehe

Elodie

BuffStuff · Mar 17, 2007

Thanks PD,

I will add that in the case of professional authors ghost-writing, most times the ghost-writer has a language style (voice) already quite similar to the cover author. Cover authors most often 'ghosted' also tend to have a 'generic' workhorse quality to their prose. Some language styles are far easier to imitate than others, and in the case of the style being very hard to imitate, then a ghostwriter is picked who naturally has a 'voice' very similar to that particular cover author.

Its damned near impossible to specifically ghost a highly distinctive language style completely separate from your own and the inordinate amount of time it would take to become competent enough to pass it off as anything other than parody probably wouldn't be worth it for a 1-time project. My point is, imitating style for a ghostwriter isn't that huge of a stretch because most often the ghost-writer's own language skills are inherently similar to the author chosen to ghost.

scarletpeaches · Mar 17, 2007

I think EC's talking about voice.

Voice is how you speak. Subject is what you speak about.

maestrowork · Mar 17, 2007

Maybe she meant the voice/style of writing horror vs. romance.

johnzakour · Mar 17, 2007

I know my goal is to get to a level where "my voice" is sort of a combinatin of Ray Chandler, Philip K Dick with some Douglas Adams tossed in.

swvaughn · Mar 17, 2007

I jumped into this thread ready to shout "Dean Koontz!"

Guess that's not what it's about.

I'm uber-jealous of him, though.

I've had quite a few people who've read my stuff able to recognize my work in blind contests because of my voice, so I think I'm getting there. Took me a while to understand what voice was supposed to be, but I might understand now. Maybe.

CheshireCat · Mar 17, 2007

It took a few years and quite a few books before I recognized my own voice, but when I looked back, it had been there, developing slowly, from the first book.

Read widely and write much, and your voice will be there. It'll also evolve over time, and likely change if you write in a new genre or head in a different direction.

It's not a fixed thing, believe me. But at the end of your career, I'm betting you'll be able to look back over your body of work and "hear" your voice even when your genre or style or views and opinions changed.

Until then, don't worry about it. Just write.

maestrowork · Mar 17, 2007

It's interesting. When I looked back on something I wrote 10 years ago, I could see the emerging voice and style, but unpolished and unfocused. It's extremely humbling and interesting to look back.

Enzo · Mar 17, 2007

Unless you only read one author or one genre most of the time, and you absolutely want your books to look like hers/his, then you already have your own voice. Though like me, you might not be able to tell what's so specific about your own voice.

jodiodi · Mar 17, 2007

I have no idea what my voice might be, but I know I don't read anyone in the genre in which Im writing while I'm writing. Maybe I should--My voice isn't apparently very good, else I would've been published by now.

Tachyon · Mar 17, 2007

I constantly put down a book I've just finished and think, Wow, I wish I could write like that. I can never be as good as this person. And I've come to realise that this reaction is my barometer for measuring how much I liked the book--the more I wish I could write like the author, the more I liked the book. Because there are plenty of books that have a great story, but I just can't follow the style of the author (an example of this is Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series). So I pass on those books. Others, like Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams, blow me away.

As much as I wish I could write "like" these people, I don't know how I'd even try. So I let my voice be determined by the story. As the story happens in my mind, my voice emerges from the emotions that I feel while experiencing the story, since those are the emotions I want readers to feel.

Voices change a lot too, and develop, as already pointed out. It's all part of "writing puberty".

scarletpeaches · Mar 17, 2007

maestrowork said:
It's interesting. When I looked back on something I wrote 10 years ago, I could see the emerging voice and style, but unpolished and unfocused. It's extremely humbling and interesting to look back.

I really wish I'd kept everything I'd ever written, but I went through a period of being so embarrassed by it all I shredded the lot. First drafts, notes, odd chapters, everything.

As soon as I edited something, I got rid of its previous incarnation.

I regret it now, if only for the hilarity reading through it would provide. But it was bad. I mean, really bad.

I'm a minimalist and I can't bear to have anything in my home that is neither useful nor ornamental. My first drafts from when I was 18, 20, 22...they were neither. So they got binned.

TrickyFiction · Mar 17, 2007

I've never actually thought about this before, but I think it might be something I should put on my wall somewhere. I'm always intimidated by some writers, knowing I'll never be able to write like them. But, I guess I shouldn't write like them. I mean, if they wrote like someone else, they maybe would not have been the distinctive voices they are, you know? These writers wrote like themselves.

We're all influenced somewhat, but I think once we find our own voice, that's when we've really matured as writers. I don't think I'm there yet, but maybe I will be one day. That's an encouraging thought, don't you think? I think so.

I could never write like you

Living the dream

Writing is finite,revising infinite

Will write for coffee

Where's my tea, please...?

Around and About

No more being nice to Pee D

Where's my tea, please...?

Fear the Death Ray

Where's my tea, please...?

No more being nice to Pee D

Fear the Death Ray

Dangerous with a Keyboard

adrift

Mostly purring. Mostly.

Fear the Death Ray

Reflections of Reality

Who?