We all know what a Stephen King book sounds like. As readers, we know what to expect when we crack open a Dan Brown tale or even a yarn by Brad Meltzer. Each has a certain voice, a specific tone set from years of practice.
Finding your voice as an author is a journey much like producing a book. It is something I’ve been thinking about quite a bit lately as I dip into new endeavors and new genres.
Rules and regulations
There is something to this, for sure. Rules are important when learning the ins and outs of a genre. Reaching a target audience requires a bit of tweaking one’s voice in order to better suit that audience.
Everyone starts out that way. But dipping more to your strengths, even the discovering of those strengths, is part of finding your own voice.
Who you want to be as an author
This has been weighing on me. When I look back, how do I want to be remembered as an author? Entertaining? Sure. Poignant? Probably not so much.
It goes back to the writing. Theme and tone, each plays a part in determining our voice – that which is projected out to the reader in the form of a final book, polished series, whatever you’re writing.
Greystone, for me, is about opening closed doors. It’s about finding light in the shadows.
What I’ve come to realize is how much some notions carry through even to a completely different series. DSA has been taking over my mind the last few months and will be owning my life for the next three or four months as I close out the opening season of tales.
That theme of discovery returns here. The concept of control over our lives – something Henry Erikson introduced to Portents in The Medusa Coin – is very prominent. Is this a matter of not being creative enough to come up with something new or is this where voice is the most prominent? In the type of message being conveyed to the reader?
The conversation is fascinating to me.
What about in the writing itself?
That is, of course, a major proponent of an author’s voice. Sarcasm, flowing descriptions, snippy dialogue. Again, each plays a role in determining a piece of what you’re trying to impress upon the reader.
But it is in the sum of all parts that the voice comes together. More than the finished product, this journey is incredible and I’m loving each connection I find when I put down my pen to start editing.
The notions inherent in my thoughts, the concepts that creep up in the background are more than similarities, they are important nuances to how I view the world. Something I wasn’t cognizant of previously.
Like Greystone, I am also trying to open new doors. To discover more about myself through my writing. To push and pull each scene for more, to say more, to be more in each sentence.
All with the hope of discovering more about who I am, who I want to be, and that voice I want to share with you.
Thanks for reading.
