“I am looking for authors with a distinctive voice.” [on an agent’s website] “Great premise but I couldn’t connect with the writer’s voice.” [publisher’s rejection] “The voice isn’t strong enough in the first ten pages to make me keep reading.” [agent rejection letter] So what do editors mean by “voice” when they talk about the craft of writing? Voice is the individual writing style of an author. It’s the way a narrator tells their story. When you put yourself into words it’s your personality on paper. Ouch. Does this mean the editor doesn’t like you? Not exactly. Criticisms of your voice, or the lack thereof, suggests you think about the way in which you express yourself in writing. Let your distinct personality, perspective, or world-view shine in your prose. Too often writers try to write in a manner so bland as to offend no one. It ends up sounding like something written by a committee instead of a real person. Or some try too hard to sound like an author whom they admire, and it feels derivative and inauthentic. Thinking about your voice means gaining a new critical self-awareness of how you sound to others (on the page). This is never easy or comfortable. And this feeling extends to our embodied voice and the discomfort and distortion we feel when listening to a recording of our own voice. In a recent survey of 1,500 people, half said hearing their recorded voice was so harmful to their mental well-being that they would…
Dodie Smith’s novel is just like any other charming British novel set in the countryside in the 1930s: the landscape is glorious, the cupboard is bare, and the characters eccentric. I Capture the Castle opens with the wonderful line “I am sitting in the kitchen sink as I write this.” The “I” is Cassandra Mortmain, the 17-year old narrator of the novel (which is, in… [Read More]
Filed Under: British, Cassandra, castle, countryside, English, family, funny, imagination, inspiration, London, romance, sad, voice, witty, writer
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When Jill Swenson asked me to write a 500 word post for Swenson Book Development LLC book blog, I was apprehensive. For one, writing creatively has never been one of my strengths. But writing critiques, doing research, and procrastinating are. Helping others write is why I want to work in book publishing. Even if the publishing industry is struggling. I refuse to say publishing is… [Read More]
Filed Under: Authors, blogger, blogosphere, Blogs, book blog, book professionals, connect, Danielle Sherwood, Facebook, Galley Cat, industry trends, Jill Swenson, links, magazines, pleasure reading, Publishing industry, Reader, Shelf Awareness, Swenson book Development LLC, The Millions, Tumblr, websites, WordPress
The collaborative effort of Victoria Boynton (poet) and Marney Lieberman (artist), entitled “Contraptions,” reminds me of a game that the Surrealists used to play at dinner parties. In this game, one person would write a word or draw a portion of a picture on a sheet of paper. The paper would then be folded over, so no one else could see its contents, and passed to the next guest. This person would write a word or draw another part of a picture on the blank space below the paper’s fold. After all the dinner guests had made their contributions, the paper would be unfolded, and there it was: a microcosm of the creative power of the unconscious mind.
Perhaps this book is itself a “contraption” for accessing the untapped resources of the heart. Using the delicate balance of poetry and art, Boynton and Lieberman hold a séance to call forth “our dark hearts and our light hearts,” and decide to “welcome whatever comes.” Beyond this, though, I am fascinated by the fact that it seems Boynton was playing a Surrealist party game all by herself. Sometimes even Boynton has no idea what is coming next in her poem, nor what has come before. Thus, the poet and the reader unfold the paper together.
Boynton is uninterested in giving a guided tour of the emotions, objects, ideas and imaginings which she catalogues so thoroughly and so irregularly throughout the book. The reader feels much the same as the narrator of “Contraption: missing part,” who spends the entire poem wandering through aisles of parts and pieces, searching for the right one. The mistake, for the narrator and the…
My friend Robin gave me a starter bag to make Amish Friendship Bread; sweet bread that tastes like a moist cake. For the first five days I opened the gallon sized bag to release the air and then seal it and smash the contents in the bag. On the sixth day, I added a cup each of flour, sugar and milk. Then I sealed the… [Read More]
Filed Under: Amish, Author, Baking, Book, bread, Community, connections, Darien Gee, Food, Friendship, Friendship Bread, Kitchen, oven, Pudding, Readers, recipes, Starter, Stories, yeast
We begin the season of soaking up the sun and relaxing with a good book. Here at Swenson Book Development, LLC, I am not the only one who is reading books worth sharing with other readers. Over the coming weeks look here for guest bloggers who will review what they’re reading. There are a half dozen books I find myself reading simultaneously. I look forward… [Read More]