I am an author of fiction (I’m also an academic writer, but let’s leave that aside for now). I have been writing fiction for decades, and examining my own evolution as a writer is a very educational process. If I had to pick the single most important improvement in my writing, that would be the emergence of my authorial voice.
Trust me when I say this: No other element in your writing is as crucial as to develop your own authorial style. The reason is, naturally, that having your own narrative voice allows you to stand out from the crowd. Selling books might not interest you (yay!) but if you’re an artist, rising above mediocrity is likely something that does interest you.
But what is authorial voice (or authorial style) and how does one develop it?
Developing your own authorial voice is crucial for your work to stand out.
People approach the motivation behind an action usually from a linear, cause-and-effect perspective. This isn’t necessarily wrong: we eat because we are hungry, and we drink because we are thirsty. However, increased complexity begins to blur the lines between a cause and its effect. Sometimes we might eat not because we are hungry, but because we are sad. Writing motivation, that is, the force behind the production of text, is such a complex issue.
To some extent, you can claim that writing motivation originates from the desire to write. I write because I want to tell a story is probably a basic, simple way to describe it. But there is a problem there. “I want to tell a story” indicates volition. Writing fiction cannot be a process you do willingly.
The first thing you see when you visit the main site – https://homeforfiction.com – is a quote by George Orwell that aptly describes the madness and self-conflicting feelings behind writing fiction. Any author will tell you: they hate writing; every word, every sentence, every page and every chapter. It’s exhausting, life-sucking, it messes with your head.
So, why do we do it?
To paraphrase an oft-quoted phrase, authors hate not writing and hate writing. They only like having written(more…)
I am a writer – a writer in the age of treason. That’s the word I would choose if I had to pick only one to best describe me professionally (whatever that means nowadays). I write novels of all kinds or genres, from speculative science fiction to supernatural horror and from soul-searching literary fiction to (yes, once even that) romantic dramas.
I am also an academic, specializing in Gothic and horror fiction (parenthetically, it is incredible how much more effortless it is to write 250 pages of fiction compared to the same number of a doctoral dissertation; don’t try this at home, kids). So, writing has “always” been something I’ve been drawn to.
Hence, writing here is really nothing different than what I am already doing, but perhaps in a more stream-of-consciousness, flexible kind of way. To a certain extent, fictional writing can be free (particularly if we’re talking about literary fiction). But it also has certain constraints which I am trying to bypass here. There is more, however.
Writing. Creating worlds.
The Age of Treason: Stupid Loudmouths and Intelligent Sufferers
The title of this first post is The Age of Treason. Forgive the shamelessly obvious pun, but sometimes I can’t help but feel that something is rotten in our world, now, in the year 2017.
No, no, I’m not talking about the usual aspects – there have always been wars, suffering, injustice, and pain. Furthermore, there have always been stupid loudmouths and intelligent but, alas, silent sufferers. What bothers me the most is how the stupid have become even louder and the wise even more marginalized. How is that connected to writing, you will ask.
