Occasionally I read a book, and though my friends have greatly varied tastes, I cannot help but tell everyone I know about it. As a writer, it still surprises me when I read something that has the potential to change my life, not in a psycho-spiritual way, but in a way which effects my creative output. Writerly folk have a way of dismissing anything that impacts the style of your writing as an example of how you are not strong in your craft, but much of writing characters and stories is, to me, finding a unique voice to tell it through. I feel it makes me more versatile to be able to change tones and voices as easily as changing a setting or story. To me, knowing the character of the work is key to discovering the voice you should be using.
The book in question is called What We Do Is Secret. Go look it up if you're curious; no summary here. However, I will say that the writer uses a very curious style of prose that is so musical, so repetitive, and so natural, that I could not put it down, even though I had to fight through a few places to understand really what was happening. And the best part was that, after finishing it, I felt this sense of freedom in my own work that I had never experienced before. I felt better equipped to write an already prose-heavy piece that I had been playing at for months. This book reassured me that it was okay to let my unconventional character speak with his own voice, and not with mine.
For fun, my writer's group tried this test: everyone was asked to write a short page of fiction, not using any of their known works or characters. In the piece, you attempt to disguise your voice and style (and chosen genre), and write something that was still palatable, yet completely distinct from any work you have ever shown the group. At the next gathering, we all read each other's pieces, not knowing whose was whose. Of the 7 of us, my work was the hardest to guess.
I take it as a major compliment that I can write pieces that are completely unique from each other in voice and style, while I do know other writers who feel differently. Some find it hard to read and work on a manuscript at the same time, for fear that some of the other writer's nuances will muddy their own private waters. The attitude is that your voice should be yours and yours alone, and you should work on perfecting what is distinctly you about your work. I don't disagree in principle, but what if your writing could be you but better? I imagine that if I wasn't constantly looking for ways to sharpen and improve, and not just change my voice, then I would be a hack at best.
And sometimes I am a hack. Sometimes, a voice I assume for a character or story just doesn't work, and I file it away for future treatments. Where voice, style, and character overlap, things get all sticky and difficult. Originally I started writing this post about character, specifically the (not-so)new obsession with the "unlikeable" protagonist. But voice is the go-between that can put an unlikable or unthinkable character in a place where they become accessible to the reader. As a writer, it is my job to be able to speak with authority from more than a single place...otherwise, my Cyberpunk grunge girl is going to sound way too much like my 15th century prince. Neither will be convincing. Overall style is a factor too, of course, but that is a whole other avenue. Trying to separate voice from style is rather pointless, in my opinion, but if you want to think of style as the more mechanical expression of voice, go ahead. In this case, I am speaking about both the writer's voice, and the character's, as it emerges from the work.
So here is my final advice: go and read some books. Read and write at the same time. Remember, real writers borrow from each other all the time, and someone just made a killing stealing from Stephanie Meyer. By all means, I am not suggesting you become a parrot. Rather, use your skills as a writer to spot what makes other writers successful; learn what draws you into their worlds. Voice and style are constantly evolving. It pays to always expand your repertoire. And when you pick up Twilight and think it's well-written enough to influence your voice or personal style, remember some chick already did that. Then go read some King, or Clive Barker, or at the very least some Laurel K. Hamilton...thousands have copied them, and I don't hear anyone complaining about that.
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