In Finding Voice

When you’re beginning to creatively write you have to learn about all the aspects of a good story: the characters, plot, setting, theme, etc. But there is one aspect I struggled with for the longest, and then it became my greatest strength: voice.

The best way I can describe voice is by calling it the tone or the vibe of the story. Voice can come from the narrator, and how the narrator tells the story can put a spin on it. The voice gives authenticity. But voice also plays an immense role onto the writer, because as the writer you are using your narrator as a medium for the story. It’s about how you get the essence of who you are through to your story and who your narrator is. 

When I began reading it was from the likes of Bram Stoker, Ernest Hemingway, and Franz Kafka, and these men among many other writers would become my inspirations for my own writing. At the time I was much more aware of classical literature and knew nothing of contemporary work. And because of that I got it fixed in my head that was how all writing was to be. I wanted to be a great writer so I should write like the greats did. 

So in the beginning I tried to somewhat mimic, I tried to be flowery with my words. And whenever  I wrote a story with words that appeared to be more laid back, modern, or involve cussing I felt incredibly guilty, as if I was disrespecting my heroes. I wanted to be as great as them but whenever I sat down with my pen or at a keyboard something about my stories always felt off. As if they were missing something and it added much stress. 

My writing style and view on voice changed when a friend recommended me Joe Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned. The friend knew my love for punk music and coming of age stories and said I would dig it. I instantly fell in love with it within the first few chapters and by the end had come to a great personal realization.

I had always believed that as a writer you had to be 100% professional, 100% flowery, and 100% act and write like an “adult”. In my hands I had just finished a book written by a pretty professional writer (who is an adult), and who wrote like the way I spoke. Joe writes honestly for his characters and it was then when I realized that I wasn’t being honest to myself. I had been putting personal restrictions on my own writing, forcing myself by following made up guidelines.  

I had this stereotype in my head that I was trying to become and it just wasn’t who I was or who I wanted to be. As a writer I believe in being professional and going about my work with the upmost discipline, but when I write I want it to be me on the page, not someone I am pretending to be. Hairstyles of the Damned taught me that you can be a professional writer and write however you wish, that there isn’t just one master voice. The world of literature has so many voices and some will work for some people and some won’t. That book taught me to give myself a break and to be free with my words, that if my words are honest to the story then they will work.