Between my houseguest and the demands of job negotiations, posts will be somewhat erratic this week. My apologies. Patience, please.
In the meantime, food for thought….
When I was in high school, my writing teacher, John Kruzan, was the first person ever to tell me that I already had my own writing “voice.” To a young teen looking for her identity, that was an invaluable and lasting encouragement. It continues to be.
It is the question I now pose for you: What are the signatures of your written voice?
Unlike the old joke, all cats are not alike in the dark. What, then, makes you different? What are the attributes of your personal writing style?
The question does not beg a narrow answer. Your style might be your signature words or rhythms. It may be your approach to pace or paragraph…it might be your take on a particular genre.
How do you approach your sense of voice?
How do you make it happen—or is it just natural to you?
How do you succeed when you succeed…or fail when you fail?
Let’s look at our work with a fresh eye, this week…and share what makes us us.
Sky Diaries 
4 comments
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April 17, 2012 at 10:43 am
Lissa Clouser
I’ve found my sense of voice happened naturally, but not immediately. It took time and practice. It’s still developing of course and I think it will always continue to do so. For now I have it in my poetry, but I’m still searching for it in other forms. =)
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April 17, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Alexander M Zoltai
My Voice is “natural” though it was distilled from many decades of omnivorous reading and self-reflection…
Some of my readers have called my style “serious but intimate”, “solid”, “literary”, “lyrical”, “hard to get”, “fresh”………
I know one thing for sure:
I’ve worked hard to make my Muse my abiding friend and her Voice is right there, underneath my words…
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April 17, 2012 at 4:54 pm
mywithershins
I haven’t really thought about ‘my voice’, although there were a few times when my first editor would change something and I’d have to tell him, that isn’t how I would have said it. I’d change it to sound more like me and he was okay with that. I don’t think I have the same ‘voice’ when I write different genres, but I haven’t had much success with those other stories. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t using the right voice. Thanks for giving me something to think about when editing some of my older work. 🙂
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April 17, 2012 at 11:10 pm
C.B. Wentworth
My “voice” has always been the one thing that comes naturally. I write what happens in my head without really thinking about it – I figure that’s the only way to flush out my personality. If I over think it, the voice gets drowned out.
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