In a new post, Roz Morris says that self-confidence is an important, but overlooked, element of your writing voice.
“I remember when I wasn’t secure about my voice and other distinctive whatnots,” she says. “I regularly rebooted myself, to be like the authors I was reading, or to act on feedback from critique groups or other publishing people.” Unfortunately, that didn’t work well. “Gradually, I discovered that if a technique or approach didn’t fit me naturally, I couldn’t keep it up. It was a strain, like clothing that was too restrictive. But sometimes a new thing did fit. I kept it, and once I used it, it changed anyway, bent to my own shape.”
If you do that enough – try new techniques, keep and adapt what works, discard the rest – eventually you start to hear your voice. “Your writing style – whether it’s poetic or not, descriptively detailed or not, pacey or not, emotional or not,” Morris says.
You’ll also find voice in your themes. “There will be certain aspects of life you’ll tend to write about, and certain characters – because those are your curiosities as a member of the human race,” Morris writes. Curiosity is a highly individual trait, from which your originality arises. It will also draw you to your genre(s) and the tone of book you’re best suited to write. “If you like the conventions of the crime genre, or the horror genre, or paranormal, medical thrillers or historical romance, or whatever, write them,” Morris says. “If you like the nuances and ambiguities of life, and metaphorical resonance, you have a literary bent. Write that. Perhaps you’re a mix of genre and literary; often they’re on a spectrum. Learn who you are and be that.”
Trial and error may sound inefficient, but it’s the only way to learn, Morris says. “Because writing isn’t just a technical skill,” she says. “It’s an art as well, and the art is, arguably, the trickier aspect. It comes from a complex and unique source – our inner landscape.”
