Guest Post by J.J. Hensley
Just Google it. Seriously.
Just type “Unique Author Voice” into a search engine and see what pops
up. Everyone seems to know how you need
to go about finding your unique author voice.
There are steps, exercises, and even templates available. We are told publishers want to find authors
who have a unique voice, but do we
really know what that means? I found
mine – but, it’s not mine.
My voice is the sum of
38 years of reading, working, talking, listening, watching television, and
observing. Is that what people mean by
finding that voice? I have no idea. But when I decided to write a novel, I knew
that if I researched how to go about it – how to outline, structure, work on
plot pacing, etc., then whatever I ended up with would not truly be mine. So, I carefully and methodically winged
it. The result was the publication of
the very first written work I had attempted.
Would this work for everyone? How
the hell would I know? I’m just a guy
who got a book published. John Grisham
is not concerned that I’m going to knock him down any best-seller lists. I’m still blindly feeling my way through the
world of being an author and it’s not uncommon for me to slam my head into a
wall. I can only pass along what I
learned during my writing anti-process.
#1. I admitted my unique voice would not be
mine.
My author voice is the
sum of nearly four decades of living,
reading, working, watching television, laughing, crying, fighting, and
loving. The voice is that of Vince
Flynn, Mark Twain, my elementary school teachers, my family, my friends, my
coworkers, and my dogs (not in a Son of Sam way). The collection of all of these influences is
specific to me and only me. How could it not be unique?
#2. Outlining and note-taking are overrated.
Prior to writing my
first novel, I refused to research anything about how other authors construct
their books. After it was picked up by a
publisher, curiosity got the better of me and I looked at how some famous authors
construct stories. One article I read
stated that Stephen King outlines 50 pages before every writing a single word
of the actual book. Yuk. That sounds awful. And who is this Stephen King guy anyway? What does that guy know? Right?
Obviously, Stephen
King knows more about writing than I ever will.
But, I do know that if I tried to sit down and outline 50 pages before
writing a book, I’d never write a book.
For me, writing is fun and needs to stay that way. Besides, when I’m writing a book I honestly
have very little idea where the story is going until I write the very next
paragraph. I know that drives some
people crazy, but that’s my anti-process.
If people ask me what my current project is about, I have a lot of
difficulty telling them because sometimes I have no freak’n idea until I start
typing the next chapter. I’m not being
coy. I’m not keeping things close to the
vest. I really don’t know. That’s the fun part! That’s part of my author voice.
#3. I didn’t start with a story, as much as I
did with my own voice.
What do I mean by
that? Well, I only had a general idea
what the plot for my novel RESOLVE would entail. I knew the backdrop would be a marathon and
that I would have 26.2 “Miles” in the form of chapters. That’s pretty much it. Then, I thought of a strong word that would
be a good title. Next, I came up with a
name for the protagonist. I thought up
some strong words or phrases that I liked and wanted to integrate into the
book. The result was that my author
voice was the nucleus of the novel and the plot developed around it. I didn’t think much about it at the time, and
I probably would not have proceeded this way if I had bought some “How to Write
a Novel for Dummies” book prior to starting.
Anyway, from what I understand, this method is backward compared to the
way many others write. So be it. Maybe my unique voice is also the result of a
jacked-up, backwards process that would not work for most others. Cool.
So, the best advice I
can give anyone who is looking to find their unique author voice is to stop
looking. You probably already have it in
you. You got it that time you got your
heart broken, won that trophy, got beat up on the playground, or celebrated
your wedding. The voice may sound a lot
like a combination of David Baldacci, John Verdon, your mother, and the loud
guy working at the coffee shop. Perhaps
you can go with your gut and not your notes or some generic template. Or… simply ignore everything I just wrote and
do what you feel is natural. That would
be a pretty cool too.
J.J. Hensley is the author of the
critically-acclaimed novel Resolve.
Resolve is available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and many
independent bookstores. Visit the author
at:
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