I TOLD you! I ain't much of a cook, and I can't play a musical instrument, and I never learned Algebra--but I know good writing when I see it.
Inara: So, explain to me again why Zoe wasn't in the dress? Mal: Tactics, woman. Needed her in the back. 'Sides, those soft cotton dresses feel kinda nice. It's the whole... air-flow.
'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Scrappy - Aug 11, 2005 11:06:28 am PDT #3533 of 10001
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Amy - Aug 11, 2005 11:07:28 am PDT #3534 of 10001
Because books.
I have a very distinctive voice. I don't really know what that means but it made me feel really really good.
Because that *is* really really good.
Allyson - Aug 11, 2005 11:19:08 am PDT #3535 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
So is it more like Kathleen Turner, or Colombo?
I need to do a lot of writing/rewriting, so I think I'll ask for a vacation day tomorrow. Yeah? Yeah.
Thank you guys a whole hella lot.
erikaj - Aug 11, 2005 11:22:55 am PDT #3536 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
No, babe. It means that an Allyson sentence sounds like an Allyson sentence and you have a way of talking about this stuff that nobody has.
Allyson - Aug 11, 2005 11:25:34 am PDT #3537 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
erika, i love you for that. and for you know, all the other stuff.
gah. I'm so excited to get it all done! Soon now.
erikaj - Aug 11, 2005 11:29:50 am PDT #3538 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
That's what "distinctive voice" means for us, Allyson. Apart from the blank looks from the average. Like "pacing problems" means "big old boring slow spot."
Betsy HP - Aug 11, 2005 1:12:07 pm PDT #3539 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
I have a very distinctive voice.
Yup. And it's a goldmine.
What that means is that a posting by Allyson doesn't sound like a newspaper article, it doesn't sound like an NPR essay, it doesn't even sound like ita. When you write something, it sounds like you, and it doesn't sound like anybody else.
Editors LOVE that. Go to any writers' convention, and you'll hear editors saying "We aren't really looking for any topic, we're just looking for a unique, compelling voice". Then you will hear desperate writers asking how to fake that.
Fay - Aug 11, 2005 4:01:09 pm PDT #3540 of 10001
"Fuck Western ideologically-motivated gender identification!" Sulu gasped, and came.
's true. You always sound very Allyson. It makes me smile. It's an enviably distinctive voice. Go Team You!
deborah grabien - Aug 11, 2005 4:30:39 pm PDT #3541 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
I don't really know what that means but it made me feel really really good.
Somewhere, probably back in the first GWW, I'm pretty sure I posted up my editor's comments about voice from her ongoing essay "How to Hook an Editor" in "Writing Mystery.
And you're damned right it should make you feel good, because a voice is what every editor wants. It brings everyone back for more. It gives you readers, over and over and over.
I told you you had voice, damn it. So does erika, actually; very distinctive.
It's not the same as necessarily being able to write well, but it takes you light years down the road in that direction, because honing the storytelling is a mechanical thing. The voice is there, or it isn't.
Welcome to the Sisterhood of the Travelling Writerly Voice.
Allyson - Aug 11, 2005 5:17:16 pm PDT #3542 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
I think I just don't get what it is and what it means. At any rate, I am home and took tomorrow off to polish Save Firefly, finish Random Acts of Paypal, and get the draft of The Misery Effect up on its legs.
I love this so much.