Hearing Voices...

I've talked about it before, how important it is to find your voice when you write. 

I found mine a long time ago. Turns out my writing voice is just my speaking voice. But you know, written. 

It's why I use unconventional punctuation. I talk in fits and starts. A lot of pauses and odd trailing off. My writing style reflects that. 

People who have spent years talking to me off line tell me that they can hear my voice in their head when reading what I've written. So it works. 

Unconventional punctuation, over use of the word so, sentence structure that would have gotten a full bottle of red ink in any of my honors English classes...

This is my voice. 

I have a voice in fiction as well. Though I try to disguise it every little bit. Try and make it sound like a different voice. Sometimes it works and you spend an entire short story waiting for my gotcha moment and it never comes. There's the gotcha!

I have been thinking about this because of a piece that Wil Wheaton wrote, in response to a piece that Neil Gaiman wrote. Basically that as you start writing, fiction especially, you tend to try your hardest to sound like your favorite authors. You might not be doing it on purpose, as in trying to fool people into thinking it's a piece by them, but you do it subconsciously because that is what you associate with good writing. With enjoyable reading. 

Who do you want to sound like?

And I am sure I did it as well. Or even do it now as well. Probably every single author I've read that I thought sounded conversational wove it's way into my brain as "this is enjoyable to me to read" and so I write like that. 

At some point that happened anyway. 

When I was younger I did not write the way I sound. At least not in fiction. I had an idea that it should sound "literary" and I tried hard for that feel. Oh no...

There isn't much worse than a 14 or 15 year old trying to sound impressive.

Funny enough though...most of it was still fairly dark. Though not as funny. That's the difference. I tend to use more humor now than I did then. I think I thought that if I was trying to say something important I had to be serious. Over the years I've found that even when I'm trying to say something important, hell sometimes especially when I'm trying to say something important I will lighten the mood just a bit. 

I am an inappropriate laugher in my day to day life. I am just dragging you all along with me in my writing. 

I like having a strong voice in my writing. I like knowing that if you are reading this it's going to be like having a conversation with me. (I talk too much and expect you to laugh at my jokes)

I also like it because that means when the voices start in my head that don't sound like me I know it means there is a story brewing. And I hope it will be a good one. I'm not sure yet what they are saying, I can just hear them in the background. Fingers and toes crossed for a productive 2023...

And yeah, it'll be dark. I mean, have you met me?

But at least it won't be literary...