“What makes writing matter is not a story, clearly told, but a voice, however odd or ordinary and a point of view, however strange or sentimental.”
–Adam Gopnik
A very dear friend of mine passed away last year in August. She was a brilliant writer and editor. She graciously left me with a ton of thoughts and material to write about, along with permission to do so as I saw fit. I am not wanting to reveal her name as of yet but I will from time to time share her expert advice about writing and editing here on this site.
Writing is of course the main ingredient to building a blog. Content is needed. From there all the other essentials begin to fall into place one by one. But it has to first begin with writing and writing requires a voice. I asked my dear friend a few years ago how does one find their voice? A question most new writers begin to ask. She told me when she first began writing and trying to get published she asked the experts the same question. Here was her response.
“I spent years trying to understand what editors and publishers meant when they talked about a writer’s voice. Was that like a singer’s voice? Or a disc jockey’s voice?
Some years ago at a Readers and Writers Retreat in Dubois, Wyoming, renowned editor Gary …(left blank intentionally) said, “I wait around to find writers who have a voice, who know what they’re writing about.”
I asked him if he could define what he meant by voice. He said, “There is no recipe for good writing. Writing is not only storytelling. A great voice is full of nuance, inflection, [and] authenticity. Voice is the expression behind the words. A clumsy voice, clumsy writing, breaks the spell then the music is gone. A great voice is one full of authority, one you can trust, one not like anyone else, one full of individual mastery. When a writer takes it as far as they can, then they are getting close. My job is to take them farther. My job is to urge writers to speak in their own voice. A good editor does not impose his voice on the writer, he recognizes a genuine voice and encourages it.”
I often tell the writers I work with not to hold back the emotion in their work, that it is their personality, their experiences, their attitudes that will bring their story alive. In order to do this they must be willing to dig deep into the forgotten realms of memory and whatever traumas they may have suffered or delights they have experienced.
They must be willing to engage their primal survival instinct and go for both the brightest and the darkest events, the ones that have shaped them into being who they are.”
Thank you dear friend for this wonderful advice.