I don't want to have a voice/style that makes people say, "Oh, that's Connie/riani1/Two Ladies", I want them to get lost in the story without thinking "That sentence/paragraph, that's so her."
Nonsense. Sorry, but that's self-destructive nonsense. Truly. And if I didn't think you could write, I wouldn't bother with what I'm about to say, so for heaven's sake, take this as a positive and don't get defensive over it:
One of the first things you learn as a fiction writer is that those two are not only not mutually exclusive - they actually nourish each other. You're going to shoot yourself in the foot if you try to shove your voice in a drawer. Your voice is a solid percentage of the story.
I can't think of a single writer of fiction that I've ever admired - from Shirley Jackson to Robertson Davies to Roger Zelazny to Michael Chabon - who didn't do precisely that nourishing thing.
And of COURSE you want to have a voice. What you want is for your voice to take your reader by the hand, sit them down, and echo in their internal ears for hours, as they get lost in the story you're weaving, and they trustingly follow that Pied Piper voice down the road of your choosing.
It's after you say "the end" that you want them to say wow, that's so connie.
Embrace that. It's what makes a storyteller. Anything else is inverted snobbery and will keep you from taking that journey.
I think if you write enough you're going to have a voice whether you want to or not. You can't help it.
That said, I rarely think about Susan-voice as I'm writing. I think about each POV character's voice, and whether or not they're distinct and appropriate. But I'm well aware that I have a distinctive style that shines through practically everything I write, and I'm fine with that.
I picked pure dialogue for my reader and writer passages because it's my favorite thing to write.
Wow, Sail that was a very hot drabble.
Deb, I posted your writer voice meme in my normal LJ. Thank you for that challenge; it was really thought-provoking for me.
I'm still thinking on the meme. I've only just started writing more than rants on my lj or term papers, so I'm not really sure if I've found my voice yet. I do know what I like to read, though, so I'll probably at least post the reader part of it.
I put the writer voice meme in my Live Journal [link] I cheated and put two; I kept trying to whittle it down, but eventually I decided it wasn't worth the head-banging. I just went with the nonfiction, which is my bread and butter. I keep putzing away at bits of fiction, but there was nothing I really liked. I also want to write long, elegant, John McPhee-style nonfiction. I would also like to be taller and have a summer house in the mountains.
Ginger, I cheated too. I put two short essay excerpts and a poem. I'm not good at following rules.
If I had to pick a passage that represents my voice, I would have to go look at old English papers because my I only feel I have found a voice in my nonfiction writing. I am still looking for a voice in fiction.
In fiction, either the current work or part of one of my fics where a woman looks deeply into her beloved's eyes and says "It matters because I love you, you idiot."
Or same story "I love the People, but if the guy from Born To Run cut me off, I'd still give him the finger."
I don't think anyone else would write that sentence.
erika, you're channeling Han Solo. And that's a good thing.
Ginger, I loved your pieces, and I left comments in your LJ. Kristin, off to read yours.
And thanks for the kind words about the poem.
