Growing as a Writer and Finding Your Voice
Do you ever look back on things you wrote a year ago and cringe?
Um, I do.
It's a good thing, really! It means you're refining your voice.
"Voice" is a difficult term to describe, as it encompasses a lot of 'feeling'. It's the individual writing style of that author, a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, flow and dialogue. Just as a trumpet has a different voice than a tuba or a violin has a different voice than a cello, one author's style will sound different from another's (ideally). An author's voice may be described as quirky, lyrical, light or dark.
An author may have many voices, depending on the POV they use to tell their story, and the feeling of the story itself. You wouldn't want to use a light voice to tell a dark story, or vice versa. You wouldn't want to use an overly professorial voice when telling a story from the POV of a teenager, either.
So, while your voice may change from story to story, your author's voice will grow and mature. This comes from a variety of influences, but none more so than the books you read.
What you're reading has great influence on the way you write in the long run. Reading is the best education for a writer. It expands your vocabulary and your exposure to different literary elements, plot points and character's personalities. Which is why it is an excellent idea to read different genres, if only occasionally.
I like to say that you are an aggregate of everything you've ever read, a melting pot of dialogue idosyncracies and plot devices.
But rather than simply regurgitating what you've read, this 'melting' occurs subconsciously, and when it comes back out of your fingers on your keyboard, it has your flavor slathered all over it. That metaphor got a little gross, but you catch my drift.
There's a caveat to this, however. You can read as much as you want, but if you don't practice your writing, your voice will never grow and mature. Just as the legs have muscle and can be worked and trained for a gymnast to do her backhandsprings at the Olympics, a writer's voice is a muscle that must be used and exercised in order to be strengthened.
The best thing I've done for myself in my career (ha ha) as a writer is simply to read and write. Happily, these things are enjoyable and don't feel at all like work. Which is probably why so many people want to do them for a living.
Um, I do.
It's a good thing, really! It means you're refining your voice.
"Voice" is a difficult term to describe, as it encompasses a lot of 'feeling'. It's the individual writing style of that author, a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, flow and dialogue. Just as a trumpet has a different voice than a tuba or a violin has a different voice than a cello, one author's style will sound different from another's (ideally). An author's voice may be described as quirky, lyrical, light or dark.
An author may have many voices, depending on the POV they use to tell their story, and the feeling of the story itself. You wouldn't want to use a light voice to tell a dark story, or vice versa. You wouldn't want to use an overly professorial voice when telling a story from the POV of a teenager, either.
So, while your voice may change from story to story, your author's voice will grow and mature. This comes from a variety of influences, but none more so than the books you read.
What you're reading has great influence on the way you write in the long run. Reading is the best education for a writer. It expands your vocabulary and your exposure to different literary elements, plot points and character's personalities. Which is why it is an excellent idea to read different genres, if only occasionally.
I like to say that you are an aggregate of everything you've ever read, a melting pot of dialogue idosyncracies and plot devices.
But rather than simply regurgitating what you've read, this 'melting' occurs subconsciously, and when it comes back out of your fingers on your keyboard, it has your flavor slathered all over it. That metaphor got a little gross, but you catch my drift.
There's a caveat to this, however. You can read as much as you want, but if you don't practice your writing, your voice will never grow and mature. Just as the legs have muscle and can be worked and trained for a gymnast to do her backhandsprings at the Olympics, a writer's voice is a muscle that must be used and exercised in order to be strengthened.
The best thing I've done for myself in my career (ha ha) as a writer is simply to read and write. Happily, these things are enjoyable and don't feel at all like work. Which is probably why so many people want to do them for a living.
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