Josh Langston's Blog - Posts Tagged "voice"
Who am I writing for?
The question I posed above is one I could have answered easily in years past. I wrote for me! I was both my harshest critic and most zealous fan. For years this admittedly schizophrenic gestalt powered my writing and colored my outlook. I'm sure it's also why I can't write a single sentence without going back over it a minimum of four times to get it right. (And you thought Sheldon Cooper's OCD door knocking was strange... Hah!)
The realization that I'd been fooling myself came as a shock. I wasn't really writing for me; I was writing to meet the expectations of everyone who'd suffered through my work to that point. I didn't have a "voice."
While working with Barbara Galler-Smith on the Druids trilogy--book 3, Warriors , debuts in August, 2013--I began to get a sense of what I should sound like. But a collaboration is hardly the place for harnessing such a thing. A collaboration should bring forth the best that both contributors have to offer, and I firmly believe we accomplished that.
But by the time we were done, I knew I had to write something in the voice that evolved over the decade-plus that we labored on Druids. In contrast,
Resurrection Blues
grew to maturity in a mere two months. And in the process, that nascent voice I've been babbling about became something I'm quite proud of.
I'm convinced I really am writing for me now. Best of all, that voice makes my work far more entertaining for anyone else who might discover it.
The realization that I'd been fooling myself came as a shock. I wasn't really writing for me; I was writing to meet the expectations of everyone who'd suffered through my work to that point. I didn't have a "voice."
While working with Barbara Galler-Smith on the Druids trilogy--book 3, Warriors , debuts in August, 2013--I began to get a sense of what I should sound like. But a collaboration is hardly the place for harnessing such a thing. A collaboration should bring forth the best that both contributors have to offer, and I firmly believe we accomplished that.
But by the time we were done, I knew I had to write something in the voice that evolved over the decade-plus that we labored on Druids. In contrast,
Resurrection Blues
grew to maturity in a mere two months. And in the process, that nascent voice I've been babbling about became something I'm quite proud of.I'm convinced I really am writing for me now. Best of all, that voice makes my work far more entertaining for anyone else who might discover it.
