When I was first starting out as a writer I had the bad habit of attempting to emulate the styles of my favourite writers. This meant that at any given moment my writing could sound like early 20th-century Irish (Joyce in pre-Ulysses days), 1930s east coast American (e. e. cummings), 1950s-to early 1960s American (any number of beat writers including Kerouac and Richard Farina), 19th-century naturalist (Flaubert, Zola, even a little Tolstoy thrown in for good measure), and traces of Classical Roman poets (Catullus, and Ovid, in translation of course).
Part of the reason for that cacophony of voices was my desire to impress people with my artistic credentials. "Wow," I could hear them saying in my head, "He writes just like a mixture of"… any combination of two or more of the above I could imagine being said about my latest contribution to the pantheon of artistic creation. It didn't matter to me that, at the time, I had as much chance of my writing being compared favourably to Joyce's as I did of passing as Mel Gibson.
One of the bigger ironies about all of this is that, over the years, I've since discovered one of the hardest things an author can attempt to do is write in somebody else's style. You end up expending so much time and energy making sure you sound like the author you are imitating, that the story you're writing is given short shrift and you are lucky if you ever finish. It's quite amazing how many "40 pages of a novel" one person can write!
I'm sure many of you out there have gone through the process of beginning to pursue writing of one sort or another and have been told somewhere along the line to find your own "voice." It's made to sound like some great quest you are to set out on. Quest For Voice or The Author And The Holy Voice. Only discover the secret of your "voice" grasshopper and you too can have a multi-million dollar deal with Harper-Collins. (I'm sure that's what was said to me anyway)
The first time I was either told or had read that commandment, I remember getting a feeling of panic in the pit of my stomach. What the hell did that mean, find your own voice? How did one go about expressing the voice that one hears in your head using words on paper? What did it sound like out loud or look like written down?
Article comments
1 - Ray Ellis
Good article, Richard. However, I think we all imitate other writers when we begin--it's like learning an instrument. The voice comes from just writing, and never forgetting those influences.
2 - Snarkattack
I agree with Ray, it just can't be helped. Perhaps the difference between good writers and great writers is that imitation and personal voice start to split and travel further and further away from one another as one progresses.
Or perhaps we make the influence fuse so well with our personal style or voice that they become increasingly difficult to separate?
Have you read a novel called "The Great Pursuit" by Tom Sharpe? It's hilarious, about this bloke who keeps writing the same book in the style of a different great work/author and submitting it to his agent each year. That's just the beginning, it's very funny and worth the read if you can find it.
3 - Howard Dratch
Does the writer find his/her voice or does his voice find him?
A writer's voice is his or her artistic soul, not something that should be idly made to conform or fit into a hole, unable to accommodate diversity.Souls and voices are hard to find. Artistic ones hide more imaginatively. It is a week I lament not being able to photograph seriously any more (photographers and painters search for their "vision" and it is the same, difficult hunt) and feel too down to tap out words on a screen. We recently watched Proof with Gwenneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. It's about mathematicians seeking that creative, individual force which they fear will peak in their 20s.
Be happy that writers usually take a time to find it and keep getting wiser and (hopefully) better. Beats child actors who peak at 12, dancers whose bodies let them down early on, and those who don't know to search at all.
Good post to catalyze our individual searches, Richard. Thanks.
4 - John Spivey
Initially there were writers that I wished to imitate. When I read them it was like being given permission to write in such a fashion. It was a recognition of something that was part of me, but not quite the same. So I wrote llike them for awhile to just build up some speed and muscle.
I think that finding a voice is actually about shedding rather than gaining. It was there all along, but it takes an effort to uncover it from the debris our lives pile on us. People confuse the contrivance of being original and new with finding their own true voice. They are not the same.
5 - diana hartman
I am pleased to tell you this article is being featured in the Culture Focus today, August 23.
Diana Hartman
Culture Editor
6 - Richard Marcus
thank you all for your generous comments, and thank you Diana for putting me in focus...you know what I mean so no comments from the peanut gallery.
cheers
Richard