Showing posts with label style. Show all posts
Showing posts with label style. Show all posts

Thursday, July 1, 2010

My Own Voice? Style?

So many agents and writing advisors urge us to write in our own voice. I haven't the foggiest idea what "my own voice" is. I don't consciously write in a particular "voice," I just write what I want to tell.

I have, however, figured out what my own "style" is. It came about when a writer friend of mine read something of mine with no name on it, buried in a pile of other somethings of others. She said she recognized my style immediately. That got me to thinking, because I also didn't have the foggiest what my own style was. After much thinking, I believe I have nailed down a definition of my particular style. It's heavy on dialogue, light on descriptions, and is broken into short pieces--much as a screenwriter would write, I assume.

Yes, it may sometimes leave the reader filling in the blanks, but I feel that's what a lot of really sharp writers do. Writers of genre mystery, anyway. Mainstream may be different.