Hello, I have been a member of this forum for a while, though i haven't posted as much as I've been writing plenty. I have found my place in the writing world and found a voice, which every single writer desire to find. Earlier, when I tried to find myself as a writer I kept writing the way I thought I should write. Looking back on that now, it was a mistake and it shouted like trying too hard. How long has it taken you to find your voice?
I think it depends on how frequently you're writing, and whether that's just free writing that you write and then close the file and never read it again, or if it's writing you go back and study, edit, rewrite. Assuming you write frequently on top of editing and rewriting, I'd echo Ginger above me and say: a few years. For me, I think by about my 3rd or 4th draft (that's a full, 80k+ word draft, each one having been edited and rewritten before I moved on to the next draft) I was beginning to have a sense of my voice. I basically found mine at some point during the past 4 years when I started writing in earnest. I think finding your own voice is pretty important - only then do you really know when to ignore someone's advice/critique I feel. There're many occasions when something's really just a matter of taste or what the writer's trying to achieve, and on those occasions you really have to trust your own instincts. Knowing your voice helps you know what you need to change, when you need to change something - and even if someone's critique is right that something needs changing, it might be that it shouldn't be changed in the same way as the critic suggested but something that matched how you write it yourself. Knowing your voice gives you the confidence you need, I think, so when someone comes and says, "I don't like this," you could say, "Well that's just how I write. It's okay that you don't like it."
I would say its taken me about 6 years. I've been writing on and off during this time and have a tried different writing styles, but when I read back what I've written I hate it. Maybe hate is too strong a word, but its not something I would enjoy reading, and that's what I want to write. I have read many different styles of writing and I know which flow for me and which don't. Some plod along and they're interesting enough but that's all, others may think they're fantastic. I want to write a book that grabs me from page 1 and won't let me go until the very end. Those are the books I love. If I can write one of those, even if I'm the only one that it grabs, then I will be one very happy satisfied woman. So, now when I write, I write for me - but its taken me a while to gain the confidence to do that
The point at which I stopped trying to sound like someone else. This was around the second thing I ever wrote.
In my second novel. When I stopped worrying about profanity, sex and saying what I really wanted to say (via my characters). My main character is flawed and troubled but in many ways freely says the things I wish I could get away with in polite society. I think this is what makes her interesting, and as a result the book is better than a simple telling of a story.
I think I'm getting close to finding mine. My first major self-induced writing project started when I was around 13/14 years old. I kept working on it until I was about 16. I actually got about a 1/4 of the book written, but then I realized that I've changed so much since I started writing it that it was starting to morph into some big ugly monster in my head. So I threw it out. Then last year I finished my first novel, and rereading it, I don't like it. It's not mature enough writing for me. A month or so ago I started another one, my first romance. After all the main characters and such were introduced I realized this isn't for me. I love the plot, but it's not something I want to read. Now I'm just doing short stories and I have to say, I'm starting to actually enjoy reading my own work. I think I'm finding my place in the writing world piece by piece.
I think it took me about three years, both to find my voice and to mature as a writer. Even though I started writing again as an adult, my first stories were a little too influenced of what I wrote in my teens and twenties. It took me a while to break free from that. But I think It's something that'll keep developing as long as I keep writing.
I would say, the first time I wrote, I really wanted to be like Anthony Horowitz because 12 year old boy, Alex Rider series haha. I guess I found my voice in Year 12 two years ago when I had to write a short story, first I was "I could write it like this, or like that", then I really started thinking about what I wanted to write and how I wanted to write it. And from there it took off. It's odd because when people ask me what my influences are, I can never really give a name because of it, there's people who inspired my to write, but I don't actively look to see i my writing is like anyone else's, I just write what I want, how I want and see where it goes.
My voice? Well I have one predominant trait: I don't describe appearance down to detail. I explain the odd or unique physical traits concisely, and move on.
My voice, like my novel, is a work in progress and constantly evolving. I don't feel I've hit the plateau as yet, and sometimes wonder if I ever will. But that is today. Ask me tomorrow, I'll likely tell you something different.
it took me a good 8 years to find my spot and be happy with it (ive been writing for about 11 years!) cannot be happier with it, it amalgamates in being able to triangulate between sci-fi, horror, and fantasy and the ability to include very real elements into it, which make people think!
Unfortunately I've been looking for my voice for over 5 years! I haven't written or read nearly as much as I'd like to have during that time but, I can't say it was completely unproductive. I have some confidence in the character's and plots I've conceived and developed over the years. The thing is, it is useless to a book without a personalized style to present it in. But hopefully I'll have finally achieved this ever important goal by the end of this year. Then I hope I can tell you otherwise EDIT: Typos, always a typo somewhere.
I agree with that, I've never wanted to force an image onto someone. I like letting people try and picture their own characters.
I don't think we ever find ourselves in the writer's world. It's so caught in change that it consistently reinvents itself in it's diligent ways. We have to write on our toes or not write at all. Without challenge there is just untenanted feelings and passion that gets old fast.
I am an avid reader, and I'm sure what I have read over decades has affected how I write, but as far as I can tell, finding my own voice has never been a problem. What work I have had to do was more in the way of the technical aspects of language and story telling.
