I’ve had the clandestine identity writer since I first scribbled in crayon on the living room wall. But there was always one small problem: talent. So the first thing I needed to do was to go out there and get me some of that God-given talent that God hadn’t given me yet. Here are the lessons I’ve learned.
Lesson One: Getting some skill
I took a noncredit course at the New School in New York City called Finding Your Voice In Non-Fiction. It seemed perfect. For 10 weeks 20 of us sat around and critiqued each other’s essays. This confirmed something I had suspected: Some people were better writers than me. I could tell. Their writing had whole sentences and nifty words. They had nice little paragraphs and compelling stories about something that really happened to them.
I learned how to identify what made their writing enticing, which made my drivel more readable. This was a challenge, of course, but there was an even bigger realization helping me: There were people who were worse than me.
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A great rundown of the actual writing process. I like how you included what you thought was going to happen and then how you were wrong; it helps put things in perspective for those of us who haven’t gone through the process. Being a writer is so much more than simply putting words on a page, though that’s part of it. Thanks for this! It makes me feel better, and worse in some ways, about my own identity as a writer.
Very useful suggestions. These days, I’d also suggest blogging as a way for nonfiction writers to hone their writing chops and receive feedback.
It’s encouraging to see that other people have the same problem I do with procrastination. Writing is very intense stuff. Forget that ‘flow’ business with painting and music; you have to pay attention when you write, and it’s hard!
Insightful. I agree with Sarah G. I am a former factory worker. I had no experience going into writing. But I knew what I wanted to write about. So I kept blogging about it in pieces–trying to find my own voice. I hate all my old writing now because I’ve improved enough to see my own (awful) mistakes. I too–studied what I liked about the best writing I saw–tried to assimilate it and make it mine. I never force myself to write–but I don’t let anything stop me when the muse is following. Grats on the lit agent and publishing deal.
I wrote my memoir over a period of years, working on it while attending two colleges, graduate school, studying for and obtaining two counseling licenses, and getting settled into my first counseling job. When I finally took it out to do final edits before beginning the search for a possible publisher, I realized something. To my surprise, my writing voice had changed a lot. My “new” voice was more casual and open, more friendly, and flowed more naturally. This wasn’t really surprising since my maturity level, confidence, and comfort level with myself had increased so dramatically during that time.
So, even though the content of the book didn’t change much, I had to go back and rewrite parts, simply because I didn’t like the words and phrasing I’d used before. They just weren’t me anymore. Sometimes, they were too stilted, seemed unnatural or forced, or just somehow didn’t seem “right” anymore. I recognized that voice as belonging to my younger self as a person and as a writer, but I didn’t want to share the story in that more timid and guarded voice. Its hard to explain this exactly, but I just knew when parts needed to be changed. When I read parts out loud, it had to sound like something I would actually say the same way.
The end result was a book that people describe as sounding “just like me,” that is an easy and friendly read. It is described as real and warm and that is exactly what I want to be said of me and my writing. At the time, I don’t think I would have called it “voice.” Maybe I would have said “style,” or just thought I had become a better writer over time. I realized now that “voice” is a good word for it, though.
Thank you for another thought provoking post.
Carmella Broome
Adolescent, Adult, Couples, and Family Therapist, Crossroads Counseling Center, Lexington SC
Author of Carmella’s Quest: Taking On College Sight Unseen (Red Letter Press 2009)