Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” ~ Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Source: Wikipedia

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, many of which have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television shows, and comic books. King has published 54 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and six non-fiction books. He has written nearly 200 short stories, most of which have been collected in book collections. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine. His novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was the basis for the movie The Shawshank Redemption which is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

April 10         Meet Pikes Peak Writers Member Barbara Nickless

April 12        Writing your Story, Blog Four by Jason Evans

April 14         Gregg Taylor Interview by Laura Hayden

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

Editor’s Note: Since our inception, we’ve tried to coincide authors’ quotes with their birthdays. This is becoming redundant. Therefore, Writing from the Peak is switching to great, inspirational quotes about writing. Such as this one . . .  

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” ~ Stephen King

Source: Wikipedia 2007 King at Comicon

This Week on Writing from the Peak:

Oct. 17          Indy v. Traditional: Roll Them Bones       Aaron Michael Ritchey

Oct. 19          Buzz Words: RUE                                  J.T. Evans

Oct. 21          Sweet Success, Ann Myers & Barbara Nickless           

Ten of the Worst Reasons to Write

By:  Karen Albright Lin

It is fun to undertake most endeavors with lofty intentions and enthusiastic dreams. But when it comes to writing, it’s wise to temper the fantasy with a dose of reality. Impractical expectations, misguided objectives, and false hopes can prevent you from getting off to a good start in one hell of a tough industry. Over many years of writing, publishing, and helping my editing clients do the same, I’ve seen writers with assumptions and motivations that hinder rather than help. I’ve been guilty of a few of these myself. Worst reasons to write:



(c) bluebay14/dreamstimes.com



1)      Stephen King became a famous millionaire, I can too.

Go for it.  It’s fun to have a dream, admirable to bite off a challenge aiming for the gold.  Nobody earns an Olympic medal of any color without trying. But a statistical reality check suggests that you may awaken from that dream someday, use it as grist for the mill, and still not become a household name or rich off your words.

2)      There are so many bad books out there and I could do better. 

Certainly possible. But writing shouldn’t be like a bad excuse, “everybody else is doing it.”  Writing isn’t following the lemmings over a cliff; writing is finding a better route and sharing it with others willing to take that adventure with you.

3)      I’m an introvert and suited to the writing life.

Marketing is largely in the authors’ hands now. If we can’t reach out, network, and be our own loud advocates, we may be doomed to fail even if we have a remarkable product. If you are a screenwriter, are you willing to have a presence in L.A.? If you write nonfiction, are you willing to be part of the social networking community? Blog on your topic? We are salesmen as well as writers. I wonder whether J.D. Salinger could have been a media-averse recluse in today’s world and still have had his book become listed in class curriculums.

4)      My mother and aunt loved my fourth-grade poetry.

That’s nice.  But are they typical readers? Industry experts? Objective?

5)      I have a great idea.

Ideas are everywhere, most of them reruns. Success is in the execution. Underworld and Westside Story are Romeo and Juliet. The great ideas are recycled, but it is how they are reconstituted that makes them successful. Uniqueness can be overrated. But there’s no harm in trying. Titanic II? May sound ridiculous, but someone out there could pull it off. It may be you. It’s all in how you approach it. But having the brilliant idea isn’t enough. 

6)      If my neighbor can do it, anyone can.

Really? You so sure about that? How many people start a book and never finish? How many have an idea and never type one word of it? If your neighbor has a finished product (good or bad) she at least has a shot at success. You can too, but only if you stop comparing yourself to others and plaster your butt to that chair.

7)      I’ll feel better about myself if I become a famous writer.

Hmmm. I suppose it could be true. But success can also lead to confirmed fears about our weaknesses when the public wants more and we get creative constipation, or worse, insecurities about whether our breakout novel was a fluke. We don’t suddenly become healthier, happier people when our books sell in the thousands. There is likely no author gene that we can suddenly prove we had all along. If anything, an emotional basket-case gene is twisted up next to the creativity gene.

8)      I have the software, I can be a writer.

It is useful to own software like Final Draft, Scrivener, or voice recognition software, but no program, no laptop, no note cards, paper or pen can make you into a writer.  Those are only tools of the trade.  Owning an anvil and fire pit don’t make you a blacksmith.  Years of apprenticeship are required. The tools of the trade are only a miniscule part of success. 

9)      I read voraciously, I should be able to write.

Not necessarily. It is the easy reads that are the hardest to pull off.  Like a back flip on the balance beam, we usually notice its difficulty when something goes wrong. Well-executed, it looks easy. Writing a great piece--whether it be an article or picture book or novel--is much more challenging than it looks to most readers. But please don’t confuse this with the notion that a writer is not a reader. Just the opposite. Great writers are insatiable readers. There is something to be said for osmosis, if one has the training to recognize brilliance.

10)  I’m deep and complicated. I should share the stuff in my head.

Maybe readers could benefit from your insight. Maybe your revelations could change the world.  But genius often doesn’t understand its audience. Cleverness can come off as grandiosity. You may have super-complex gears turning in that brain of yours, but the best writing complicates the struggles of your characters but simplifies an idea.

Taking those first few baby steps will be far easier if we are realistic about why we write.

About the Writer: Karen is an editor, ghostwriter, pitch coach, speaker and award-winning author of novels, cookbooks, and screenplays. She’s written over a dozen solo and collaborative scripts (with Janet Fogg, Christian Lyons and director Erich Toll); each has garnered international, national and regional recognition: Moondance Film Festival, BlueCat, All She Wrote, Lighthouse Writers, Boulder Asian Film Festival, SouthWest Writers Contest, and PPW Contest. Find out more at www.karenalbrightlin.com

Quote of the week & the week to come

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."  ~ Stephen King. 

Bingcom/images

Stephen King is a 'New York Times'-bestselling novelist who made his name in the horror and fantasy genres with books like 'Carrie,' 'The Shining' and 'IT.' Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV.

Source Bio. 


This week on Writing from the Peak: 

Mon. Sept. 7:  Letter from the Editor, Donnell Ann Bell

Wed. Sept. 9: Ask the Prez, J.T. Evans

Fri. Sept. 11: Sweet Success celebrates Peter M. Klismet, Jr.

The Amazing Blessings of Being a Writer

So last month on the ol’ PPW blog, I talked about the occupational hazards of being a writer. You can go check ‘em out with a linky poo. I promised at the end of that post I would talk about the blessings of being a writer. 

Too bad I can’t think of any.

Shortest. Blog post. Ever.

Kidding!

Blessing #1. I can’t talk about fame, or money, or private jets, because so far, that hasn’t been my story. Okay, I’ve had a little fame—I’m a local celebrity in some small circles, and that is nice.

For those of you who have books out, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve heard, “Oh, so you’ve written a book?”

[Insert awkward pause and little smile here] “Yes, yes, I have.”

Now some might follow that up with, “Are you self-published?” Big smirk. But most, 99 percent of the time, will say, “That’s really cool!” or, “That’s sick, man.” Do the kids still think sick is good? What about groovy?

Bam! You get to be famous in the micro sense if not the macro.

Blessing #2. So a little fame here and there, and for a lot of writers, there's also a little dough. Not a lot, but a little extra green coming in. You need me to pick up some Starbucks for you? I got you covered. Got my royalty statements. 

Bam! Coffee money.

Blessing #3 What we practice we improve upon, and being able to communicate through the written word is a precious skill to have. I answered an email and got a marriage proposal because I spelled things correctly, used sentences and paragraphs, and included some clever word play. Now, I’m not saying your writing will get you married, but I’m not saying it won’t either.

Bam! Marriage proposals.

Yes, writing is work, it takes sacrifice, and discipline, and some farfetched optimism, and that, my friends, is a blessing. Queue up the bam machine.

Blessing #4 We get to practice sacrificing our minutes for a higher cause, disciplining ourselves, and building character. I’m reading a book now called The Road to Character by David Brooks, and every time he describes a vocation, it’s like he’s talking about my writing life. I say it all the time—if you have the desire to write a book, you have a sacred duty to write that book because not everyone has the desire, the time, or the resources.

Sacred duties can be a pain in the ass, but overall? They give life meaning. They shape destiny. They improve not only the person on the quest, but the world in general. I’m a big fan of sacred duties as long as they don’t involve genocide.

But you know the real blessing of being a writer? It’s that in the final product, you hold the minutes of your life. I know, that’s a cool line. Let me repeat it so it’s more quotable.

 Bam! That is the biggest blessing of all.

When you hold your book, you’ll remember the crazy things you did to finish it. You’ll remember the songs you listened to, the movies you watched, the books you’ve read, the hundred little conversations you had. In a sense, the time you worked on a book is encapsulated in the pages. Your life gets filtered into the paragraphs. And in the end, you have a legacy to leave behind, and you never know what will happen.

Jane Austen never saw success in her lifetime. We’ll never meet her. But we get a sense of her, I think, through her writing. I might be wrong, but I totally want to think she was like Miss Elizabeth Bennett. Probably not, but a boy can dream.

I can’t remember which book it was in, but in a foreword (or afterword) Stephen King wrote that he wanted his readers to get to know him through his books, not stalking him, or getting all creepy. You dirty, dirty birds. And through his books, we get a sense of who he is and what he was interested in during the time he worked on his books.

So as writers  who write and publish books (by any means necessary), we leave behind a legacy, our minutes, our ideas, our stories.

Bam! Now, that my friends, is a blessing worth a little adversity.

Aaron Michael Ritchey is the author of The Never Prayer and Long Live the Suicide King, both finalists in various contests. His latest novel, Elizabeth’s Midnight, was called “a transformative tale for those who believe in magic and in a young girl’s heart” by Kirkus Reviews. In shorter fiction, his G.I. Joe inspired novella was an Amazon bestseller in Kindle Worlds and his steampunk story, “The Dirges of Percival Lewand” was part of The Best of Penny Dread Tales anthology published through Kevin J. Anderson’s WordFire Press. His upcoming young adult sci-fi/western epic series will also be published through WordFire Press. He lives in Colorado with his wife and two ancient goddesses of chaos posing as his daughters.

For more about him, his books, and how to overcome artistic angst, visit www.aaronmritchey.com. He’s on Facebook as Aaron Michael Ritchey and he tweets - @aaronmritchey. 

Quote of the Week and Week to Come

“Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”

www.theguardian.com

Stephen King (September 21, 1947 - )
Carrie
The Shining
The Stand
Dr. Sleep
On Writing

Awards:  Bram Stoker, O.Henry, National Book Association "Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Literature, Mystery Writers of America "Grand Master Award"

Happy Birthday, Mr. King

This week on Writing from the Peak:

(Editor's Note:  Watch for an extra blog post on Tuesday.  We are publishing all the posts specific to PPWC14 before we fully launch into PPWC15 mode.)

* The Hero's Arc                              Delores Montano

* Indie Publishing and Me            Fatma Alici

* Confidence and Community      Jade Goodnough

* Sweet Success! C.L. Roth            Kathie Scrimgeour

The Serialized Novel – Part 2 – Manipulation is a Virtue

By Deb McLeod

(To read the first part of this series, click here.)

When I think of writing a serial novel the first craft challenge that presents itself is the cliffhanger. Cliffhangers are a story device designed to make readers come back. “Who Shot JR?” the “Dallas” TV show’s most well-known cliffhanger was a summertime question of my youth. In my favorite soap, “All My Children,” each Friday brought some sort of cliffhanger for one of the plot lines.

Some authors use mini-cliffhangers at the end of each chapter of their standalone books. During an analysis of Stephanie Meyer’s “The Host,” for an unrelated craft investigation, I noticed how often she would split a scene across a chapter right at the climax point in order to create a cliffhanger from chapter to chapter.

Emily Naussbaum reports in the New Yorker: “Cliffhangers are sensational... (they are) primal and unashamedly manipulative.” Here, here, I say, bring ‘em on. Manipulate me.

There is nothing more juicy than a cliffhanger. If I can get a reader on the edge of their seat just dying to turn the page or wait for the next installment – well that would be alright with me!

Episode endings in a serial or serialized novel should have more impact than chapter endings. Each episode should drive toward its ending in the same way a standalone book drives toward its climactic ending. So how do you write the end of an episode well? What constitutes a good cliffhanger ending?

When I need to learn something I turn to a book, or a model, as I prefer to call it when I'm in research mode. I've been reading serials and decided to dig into the cliffhangers of Stephen King’s “The Green Mile” and Margaret Atwood’s “Positron” to see if I could see what the big authors do with their end of episode cliffhangers.

I’m going to rate the cliffhangers on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being that you absolutely have to turn the page to find out what happens next.

SPOILER ALERT – STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE PLOT OF “THE GREEN MILE” OR “POSITRON”

First let me say that “The Green Mile” was written in 1996 and was an experiment to see how Stephen King’s fans would react to serial fiction. This was before ebooks and before the resurrection of the serial. I found his book to be more of a traditional book than a serialized one.

The Green Mile
I had seen the movie, “The Green Mile,” so I already knew the plot but I wanted to read the book to see how King wrote it in episodic fashion. Here is a summary of the cliffhangers by episode:

Episode 1: 54 pages long. Toward the end of Episode One, Paul, the protagonist, and Brutal, one of the prison guards, have found a hole where a mouse, Mr. Jingles, had hidden some peppermint candies and some colored splinters of wood from a spool. Mr. Jingles was the pet of the now-executed prisoner Delacroix, who gave the mouse the candies and had him fetch the spool. Apparently, Delacroix was badly executed by the villain and both Brutal and Paul decide they can’t be guards of the Green Mile any longer. They can't watch any more prisoners be executed. The last line of the episode is: “John Coffey will be the last.” We've already gotten a bit of Coffey’s story and a bit of Delacroix’s story. Episode One serves to set up a frame for us to find out in detail what happened to both of those prisoners. In a straight novel, this is a great setup. As far as cliffhangers go, I’d rate this with a one. (See below for what might have worked better.)

Episode 2: 60 pages long. The end of this episode shows a violent prisoner who has one of the guards in a stranglehold and is dying in front of Paul’s eyes. The prisoner sees that Paul has a gun and turns the guard toward it, “so that I’d almost certainly have to hit one to hit the other. From over Dean’s shoulder, one blazing blue eye dared me to shoot.” This one gets a four and a half rating from me. Does he shoot? Does the guard die? I want to know.

Episode 3: 62 pages long. The prisoner Delacroix is to be executed the next day and is worried about what will happen to his mouse, Mr. Jingles. The guards lie and tell him they’ll take Mr. Jingles to a fictional place called Mouseville in Florida, where he’ll spend his time entertaining people with his tricks. Delacroix throws the spool for Mr. Jingles to fetch and it takes a bad bounce and ends up on The Green Mile, the corridor running between the cells. The villain, another guard, who has been trying to kill the mouse, finally gets his chance and he stomps on it. The last line: “He turned and walked back up the Green Mile, not hurrying, leaving Mr. Jingles lying on the linoleum in a spreading pool of his own blood.” That’s a solid five. We love Mr. Jingles. He can’t be dead. You have to fix this!

Episode 4: 57 pages long. Paul has come up with an idea to smuggle John Coffey out of prison to help the warden’s wife. The guards are debating whether it’s a good idea or not. They are afraid Coffey might make a run for it. He's a giant of a man and in jail because of a violent crime. But Paul assures the other guards Coffey's not going to try to escape. They want to know how Paul can be so sure. We know that Paul has discovered something about Coffey. Paul begins to tell the guards how he knows with the promise of the rest of the information to come in the next episode. Meh. This gets a two from me.

Episode 5: 63 pages. The guards are bringing Coffey back from the warden’s house where he has helped the warden’s wife. Coffey is weak and almost falls off the truck. He’s coughing and the guards are afraid they are going to get caught sneaking the prisoner back into jail. The last line is: “As it turned out, our evening was far from over.” A promise for what’s to come. Manufactured to tantalize me into wanting to know. Another mediocre cliffhanger – a three from me. I care about Coffey and I know he gets executed so I would read the last episode but the episode ending didn't leave me dying to read it. 

Maximize the Structure
So what’s the difference between these episode endings? The end of episode two and episode three contain the possibility of irreversible change, whereas the other episode endings, while interesting, don’t have the same zip. They don’t end on an action scene and they’re promises that more information will be revealed in the next segment. They appeal to my curiosity, not my need to know.

I also see there's a “care about the character factor” at work in episode endings. By the end of the first episode, the care factor isn't that high. In a classic King move, during the episode, he writes a violent prisoner introduced to the death row jail. Sets up the reader for what the guards face bringing a prisoner into the Green Mile. A bit later King brings in John Coffey, who, while he is a giant of a man who could easily overpower the guards, is gentle. His eyes are different. And the only question he has for Paul is: do they leave the lights on at night? Because he doesn't like the dark.

We care about Coffey right away (King is so good at that). So it would have been an excellent build toward the last line of “John Coffey would be the last.” End of episode. Boom. The gentle giant will be put to death and our protagonist is going to have to do it. And then he'll never do another execution again. You'd have to turn the page, right? Why does Coffey have to die? Why can't you save him? You have to save him.

However, that's not how episode one is written. There's a whole segment between Coffey's question about the dark and the last line. That segment, while good, interesting and necessary, dissipates the build toward the last line. It does set up the suspense about Mr. Jingles, about Delacroix's bad execution and that the story to come will show why Paul and Brutal have to get out of this game. Great standalone writing to be sure. But maybe serial episodes require a bit of a different structure.

Positron
Next we’ll look at the first three episodes of “Positron,” Margaret Atwood’s serial. (Episode 4 has been released but I haven’t had time to buy it yet. I guess that says something, right?)

Episode 1: 31% of the 3-episode ebook. Stan has become obsessed by a note he found in a home which he and his wife, Charmaine, inhabit every other month with another couple they've never met. In a dystopian future, many people live in jail for a month and then live out in the world for a month to save on resources. Great concept. It’s a good book. The note Stan finds has a lipstick print on it and is signed Jasmine. Clearly a love note. Clearly, Jasmine is everything Charmaine is not. So Stan decides he is going to get a glimpse of Jasmine the next time they change places with the other couple. At the end of the episode he finds out Jasmine is really Charmaine who is having an affair with Phil, the man who takes Stan’s place every other month. She left the note for him. Stan has been caught snooping by Phil’s wife, Jocelyn. Jocelyn is security for the new order, a muckety-muck who can easily eliminate Stan if she wants. But she wants revenge. So she takes Stan as her new mate. There’s no way out for him. Irreversible change; I’ll give it a four.

Episode 2: 32% of the book. By the end of episode two, Jocelyn has tired of Stan, who has been keeping up a good front. Jocelyn says it’s time for him to go. She has arranged for Stan's wife, Charmaine, who’s been in jail these few months, to get her old job back. Charmaine puts unwanted or misbehaving people to sleep. For good. The next procedure she will perform, Jocelyn tells Stan, will be on him. Stan is convinced Charmaine will never do it. But Jocelyn tells Stan that it will really be fake; they want him on the outside of the system so he can do a job for them. He’s stuck again. Jocelyn sticks Stan with a needle and he passes out. Pretty good cliffhanger. I’ll give it a four. But wouldn’t it have been better if it ended with Stan on the table and Charmaine standing above him with the reader asking the question of whether she would actually do it or not? I'm just saying.

Episode 3: 33% of the book. Charmaine does kill her husband, as far as she knows. Remember they fake all this. Afterwards, Stan gets smuggled out and Charmaine is "asked" to go to the the medical facility. She can't say no. She gets into a car they send for her, and Phil (Jocelyn's husband) is driving, but he pretends not to remember her. Now she believes they are trying to erase her. Now she will have to keep her wits about her if she wants to lead any kind of life in this system. The last line here is: “She’s on her own.” Not a great cliffhanger, as cliffhanger’s go. It’s a mirror of Stan’s ending in episode one. It gets a three from me.

When I compare these two books with some of my favorite TV shows that make good use of cliffhangers, they come up a little short. Ever watch “24?” Or “Breaking Bad?” Or “The Walking Dead?” Some episode endings are better than others, to be sure, but most fall into the “irreversible change” category rather than the “stay tuned for more info” category. Many are jaw-dropping surprise twists. Clearly manipulating me and that's why I love them.

So in your serial, should you shoot for all episode endings to have an irreversible change? End in action? Be a surprise? Would that be too much? Too predictable? Too far into the realm of Snidely Whiplash standing over Nell Fenwick, who's tied to the tracks with the train coming? But if you don't, how do you get the reader to come back?

Any advice on episode endings you'd like to share while I'm rewriting?

To read Part 3, click here.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach and founder of The Writing Ranch. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.  

Voice, or Why You Shouldn’t Worry About Sounding Like Stephen King

By DeAnna Knippling

New writers, we go, “I have to be careful about my reading habits when I write. Otherwise I’ll sound like whomever I’m reading instead of like myself.” I don’t know if all writers do or did this, but I did - briefly. I stopped, not because I  had some insight about it at the time or felt confident that I knew my own voice, but because it interfered with my reading.

  

There are probably good reasons for not reading while you’re writing, but I seriously doubt they have anything to do with picking up another writer’s voice. If I couldn’t read while I was writing, I’d have more time to write, for one thing. I did The Artist’s Way last year, and when I got to the week of no reading (it’s one of the projects in the book), I got a lot more done, both because of time (I read a lot) and because I had a craving for words. If I couldn’t read someone else’s words, at least I could read my own as I wrote.

But holding back on your reading because you’re worried about copying another writer’s voice? Why bother - you can’t.

Oh, when you’re a beginning writer, it can feel like you’re copying another writer’s voice. And, if you’re lucky in your friends, you might have someone tell you that you kind of sound like Stephen King, but - trust me - you don’t.  

Stephen King, and all writers who have a recognizable voice, have so many things going on at the same time that, as a beginning writer, there’s no way you could recreate that accurately. Sure, you could write a pastiche or a satire - but it would be just that. 

To continue with the example: Stephen King. He’s from Maine. Are you from Maine? He can do accents spot on. And not just Maine ones. Can you? Do you know how to open scenes the way he does? To handle dialogue - not just accents, but in keeping character voices different? How about pacing? Can you pace like Stephen King? And that’s not including personal details that affect his work. Stephen King has certain childhood fears. Do you have the same ones? The exact same ones?  

And so on. Stephen King isn’t just a set of features found on the page. His “voice” comes out of the unique combination of a million different things. He’s unique, I tell you. Unique.  

If you spent your life trying to learn how to write exactly like Stephen King, you couldn’t do it. You’d betray yourself, your own uniqueness. And Stephen King doesn’t hold still, either. He’s still pushing forward, getting better as a writer, acquiring new experiences to add to his “voice.” Any writer worth the paper their books are printed on does. Start trying to write like Stephen King while he’s still alive, and you’d just get further and further behind.

There’s a short story by Jorge Luis Borges called “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote.” I hadn’t really grasped the story until recently. It’s about Pierre Menard, who tried to write Don Quixote from scratch. Not copying the book, but immersing himself so much in the author’s life and worldview that he could rewrite the book without actually referring to the book. The story is more complex than that, but in the end, Pierre Menard succeeds, at least to some extent, producing a few bits and pieces that match Don Quixote word for word: two and a half chapters that constitute the bulk of his life’s work.

It’s a silly story, written as a passionate defense by a literary critic, who claims that Menard’s work is “richer” than Cervantes’, even where the two texts match exactly. Silly, until you think of all the writers who are afraid of sounding like another writer after reading a couple of books by them. 

When I was younger, I wanted to write stories just like Borges. I failed; even given that I don’t have the same style, my ideas and plots aren’t even close. The writer who comes the closest, in my opinion, is Umberto Eco. In one of Borges’s stories (“The Library of Babel”), he writes of an infinite library that contains every possible book (including an infinite number of books of gibberish). Eco, in The Name of the Rose, tries to write a very similarly-described library (the library in the mysterious monastery is laid out physically in much the same way as the library in Borges’s story, and the blind librarian Jorge of Burgos features prominently in the plot; Jorge Luis Borges was himself blind and a librarian). While these two stories share a fictional element - the library - there’s no way you could confuse the two creations. The writers’ voices are too different, even though it’s fairly easy to see that Eco used Borges as an inspiration.  

Another example: Neil Gaiman likes to write Sherlock Holmes stories. Yet there’s no way you could confuse the two writers. A master storyteller - Gaiman - trying his best to write a pastiche, and there’s still no way you could confuse the two (except for, possibly, very brief passages, as in the “Pierre Menard” story).  

So what to do when you feel like you’re absorbing another writer’s voice?

The easy advice is to say, “Just don’t worry about it.” Bah. Telling someone to “just not worry” never did a bit of good. So instead I’ll say - celebrate it. Because if you can’t learn an author’s true voice, then what are you doing when you feel like you’re picking up on another author’s voice?

Learning technique. The same way the writers you love learned their techniques, from writers they loved.

Feel like you sound like Stephen King? Great! Keep at it.  

Just, you know, quick harassing your friends to constantly keep pointing it out to you.


About the Author: DeAnna Knippling started freelancing in May 2011 and wouldn’t be able to do it without her wonderful family and friends, especially her husband. In fact, she owes a lot to Pikes Peak Writers for helping her be a better writer, especially through the Write Brains, both in the lectures and in meeting lots of other writers.

Her reason for writing is to entertain by celebrating her family’s tradition of dry yet merry wit, and to help ease the suffering of lack of self-confidence, having suffered it many years herself. She also likes to poke around and ask difficult questions, because she hates it when people assume something must be so.

For more kicks in the writerly pants, see her blog at www.deannaknippling.com or her ebook How to Fail & Keep on Writing, available at Smashwords, B&N, Amazon, and OmniLit.

Quote of the Week

Books are a uniquely portable magic. -Stephen King